Portfolio
The Landscape Listens
In this project entitled “The Landscape Listens”, I explore mystical experiences of nature in the poems of Emily Dickinson through my dye and embroidery practice. As I read the poems, I imagined them taking place in landscapes I grew up in in Iceland. The grandeur and intensity of the landscape I was familiar with was like a manifestation of the poetic moment of confrontation in Dickinson’s work: something greater—the land, a reminder of fleeting time—forces a reckoning inside of us. I started my project with drawings which were informed by firsthand landscape research which then inspired my painted dyes. Through my embroidery, I explored the poems’ highly visual metaphors of death, light and shadow, and the imagination of a poet in the world. The finished works are thus a personal reflection of Dickinson’s writing and style and a conversation with the artist. I play with the context of the works’ presentation—on a wall or on a body—to test the boundaries between fashion and art.
Redwood
For this project I chose the Redwood Forest as my subject matter, after a trip there this spring. While in the Redwood Forest I was struck by the overwhelming beauty and natural history present in the environment. I was simultaneously overwhelmed by the sheer size of the forest and the trees while also being drawn to minuscule details in the tree canopy, bark, and light . Standing among the trees overwhelms your senses with color and textures in a way that makes you feel small and connected to nature. This feeling is what drove me to explore it as a subject; how can I translate the incredible colours, scale, and details of the forest in a project? I decided to really focus on hand dyeing and hand embroidery as my methods as I thought they would best capture the natural beauty of the forest.
Búkolla
This collection explores the images—earthly and magical—of an Icelandic folktale which my grandmother would tell me when I was little. The story follows a lost cow trying to find its way back home through a troll, bird, and fire filled Icelandic landscape. The series depicts significant moments in the cow’s journey and evokes both the whimsical nature of the tale and the active imagination of the child listening. I used Icelandic wool to knit and felt grounds for my hand stitch and appliqué, and hand dyed silk and organza. Through the vibrancy of embroidered line, spontaneous color shifts in the dyed fabrics, and exploration of texture, I wanted to bring the viewer into a playful mode. I was able to create a new relationship with this childhood story by creating my own materials: transforming my young imaginative wonder into creative processes. These pieces are thus also an exploration of memory, how a story ages, how certain images become bolder and some more tender with time. Moments from the original story blend with childhood memories of the Icelandic landscape. My current relationship to and ecological understanding of Iceland acted as organizing and aesthetic principles in telling the story anew. In this explorative series I attempted to develop a new personal visual language, one which could express both my own memories and perspective on nature as well as our collective place in the natural world and the stories we tell to preserve it.
Lava
In this project I look at how lava both destroys and rebuilds a landscape, pulling imagery from the volcano that erupted in my home of Iceland. Using weave, embroidery, and digital prints (my own film photographs) I explore the lava’s stages and layers of destruction and creation. I am interested in examining both the transformation the landscape goes through, but also the interior changes that the rock goes through.
Hús
In this project, I explored houses from my childhood. Experimenting with different materials, I used my own film photography as well as drawings to weave, stitch, and knit landscapes, colors, and textures that remind me of those houses. I used a variety of materials including, house insulation, acetate, wool, and staples.