My outdoor site installations place me in the progression of earth artists that have worked with land forms and natural elements. Throughout this period, nature and cultural event were prime sources for my ideas.įorty years ago I moved from an urban environment to an isolated mountain landscape, leading me to themes documenting nature and ritual from the distant past. LenoreTawney and Joseph Cornell inspired this work. Returning to school in the 70’s, I was introduced to the artists’ book movement, mixed media, and collage and began experimenting with dimensional ideas and non-illusionary materials. My early influences were California artists including Corita Kent where text and image informed my prints. I began making works with paint and progressed to printmaking which included silk screen, intaglio, and lithography.
My love of paper has always connected to nature such as in the Winter Pressing and Talisman series collected book pages evolve into collage paper made from fibers of Asian origin become assemblage and sculptural forms ephemeral handmade papers appear in my installations in nature and gallery settings and many varieties of paper are used in my artists' book forms. It is best ground with oats in half and half proportions to create a fluffy highly nutritious bread.When I look back on my over fifty years of making art, the arc swings over the word PAPER - art on paper and of paper.
The mature seed head, the hotdog, makes fantastic flour as well. It contains a large amount of minerals and vitamins. The pollen can be collected in the spring and used as a flour supplement or as a thickener in soups and puddings.
The flower spike may be eaten similar to corn. While they are still young and tender, the bases of the cattail leaves may be eaten raw and are delicious like a succulent cucumber. They are best when washed well, dried and ground into flour. In addition to the stems, cattails have underground lateral root systems that can also be eaten. The stems are starchy, but also laden with fiber, so the starch must be scraped or sucked from the tough fibers before the plant is consumed. The rhizomes, or stems, are a nutritious, energy-rich food source. The cattail has a wide variety of parts that are edible to humans. Sore throat, amenorrhea, painful mesus, postpardum pain, abdominal pain, internal bleeding, and lymphatic issues are among the other ailments cattail has been utilized to treat medicinally. Cooked, the same pollen becomes a coagulant, and is useful in promoting the clotting of the blood in order to treat severe bleeding or other wounds. Dried, the pollen is useful as an anti-coagulant, preventing the clotting of blood and thereby allowing for better circulation. The pollen dusted on externally or ingested internally, aids in the treatment of hemorrhaging. These seed heads form into brown hotdog shapes and explode into cottony fluff when opened.Ĭattail can be utilized for a wide variety of medicinal uses. The female flowers form clusters of minute seeds, which attach to thin stalks. The male flowers consist of a pair of stamens and hairs that wither once the pollen is shed. The stems (rhizomes,) spread horizontally beneath the surface of the ground, starting new upright growth. The leaves of the cattail are alternate and simple, and the stem is joint less, and eventually responsible for bearing the flowers. Cattails are wetland plants, with spongy, strap-like leaves and starchy, creeping stems known as rhizomes.