This series of mono prints is a meditation on accessing nature. For more than a year, my oldest son has been held in solitary confinement where he is not allowed to go outside. For much of that same year I was recovering from spine surgery and my rehabilitation was anything but easy, and getting outside, especially to hike, was impossible. These mono prints are reflections on the pain that I felt knowing that my son was not allowed access to sunlight, fresh air, to feel a gentle breeze on his skin, or to witness the shift in weather and landscape as the seasons change. He had not seen a bird or any other creature in such a long time, and there are no words to describe how sad and angry this makes me feel.

On a quintessentially perfect fall day in 2022, I had enough strength to go for a short hike where I gathered flowers, leaves, grasses, and twigs, which I incorporated into these mono prints. Collecting these elements was a way to attend to my grief about the situation with my son while exploring the changes that my body had undergone since I had surgery. It is its own kind of hell to get to experience something so simple and beautiful knowing that someone you love is being held in a cage.

This series was an experiment that I hope to continue with in the near future. I tried to use the natural and organic elements found on my hike along with geometric paper cutouts and other techniques to create a sense of depth and texture that reflects the complexity of how I feel. Color is an important element in my work, and here the vibrant pinks and neon greens are in stark contrast to my general mood, and as lovely as the warm rusts and deeper hues of autumn are, they only serve to remind me that someone I love is sitting in a windowless, colorless cage and that should anger so many people.