Expanding Circles | A creative practice engaging in cyclical living and design through charcoal drawing, furniture building, carbon sequestration, plant & soil restoration, and ancestral healing.
For each piece, I begin by hand making a panel. I then measure and create a clay mixture that I apply with a brush onto the surface of the panel. I sand each thin layer before applying the next. I continue with this process until I build up a surface that provides a warm, earthen tone, a slight tooth for my materials to hold onto, and a substrate that can be altered after mark-making. I use charcoal pencil as well as charcoal watercolor paint to create each visual mark. I then selectively scratch into the charcoal marks, which allows me to work in both an additive and subtractive way, adding depth to each mark and revealing the natural color of the clay beneath. I also occasionally hand make the charcoal watercolor paint from scraps that remain from my creative process.
