Field Notes
Some materials ask different questions.
Plastic bags remember the lives they have already lived.
Wool remembers the animal.
I learned to felt because I wanted to understand what this sculpture needed to become.
Not because I already knew how to make it.
The lichen became larger.
The material became quieter.
Yellowstone reminded me that landscapes are shaped by relationships long before we arrive.
Silent Sentinels
Wool, wood, chicken wire, steel
65 × 55 × 18 in
2024
Created during The ARK Project Residency, Yellowstone National Park
Silent Sentinels is a sculptural interpretation of the brown-eyed wolf lichen, created during a residency in Yellowstone National Park. Constructed from hand-felted sheep's wool over a wire armature, the work translates a small, often overlooked organism into human scale.
The sculpture emerged through experimentation with wool as a new material. Its ability to diffuse light, hold color, and build soft, organic surfaces opened a new direction within my practice while remaining rooted in the slow accumulation and ecological relationships that continue throughout my work.
Inspired by the history of wolf lichen as both an ecological indicator and a material once used in predator management, the sculpture considers how humans assign value to species over time and how those decisions reshape ecosystems.
