of dirt and silt and branch and bone is a body of work created during a year long Jerome Early Career Printmakers residency at Highpoint Center for Printmaking in Minneapolis. This work contains densely-layered and rendered lithographs that explore loneliness, longing, and heartbreak. They are a documentation and connection to the queerness present but not always visible in these rural places and explores the intimacy, tenderness, and desire in queer relationships through fragmented scenes, bird flocks, and symbolic objects.

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​Fragmented landscapes represent memory and pieces of lived experiences alongside the constant movement and search for belonging common in the queer experience. The separated compositions and partnering of wildlife subverts both the typical portrayal of landscapes and the common over-sexualization of gay couples and instead redirects the narrative to allow the viewer to engage with the longing and love portrayed. The familiar, Midwestern scenes offer a normalcy to the environments while the handwritten text and coupled birds signal care and loss. 

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​The multiplicity of printmaking and intimacy of these drawings carry an important role in highlighting how stories and information are shared in rural and queer communities and articulate the delicacy, beauty, and challenges of queer partnerships and desire. These intricate works act as snapshots of memory and demonstrations of love, offering  an intimate consideration of the queerness which exists within rural America.

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