I am engaged in a conversation with nature. Each work produced is the result of an intimate dialogue between artist and materials. The conversation may begin as I gather recycled organic matter and collect man-made objects of little value, or it may commence with a sudden discovery: of the beauty in a corn leaf, for example. Leaves and flowers that have fallen to earth are dried, ironed, flattened and stitched: processes that I view as ceremonial transitions from one stage of being to another. Through preparing the materials, I am attentive to the ways they reveal, through shape, pattern, color, texture, scale, nature’s language of process and change. Patience and the passage of time enable me to discern my role in their evolution or comple...