Svalbard 79.75 degrees North: Pack Ice II State I, 2020

Etching (Hardground and aquatint)

18 x 21 in.

My work is informed by onsite studies in the Arctic, whose materiality and deep time shapes my practice and guides my choice of materials. I create atmospheric images that are inspired by the Arctic yet also relate to my everyday life, most directly by living in the foggy coastal city of San Francisco. A fascination with natural elements and transformation fuels my work. I use ice, fog, and air currents to process at-risk local and global environments.

"Pack Ice II" was conceived after The Arctic Circle Residency, sailing the waters of Svalbard, Norway in June 2019; a then record-breaking month for soaring temperatures in the Arctic. As an etcher whose iterative work lies between creation and destruction, Svalbard's dichotomies spoke to me. Copperplate etchings were a natural choice as the copper, in acid, erodes like melting ice; a natural resource incrementally lost. "Pack Ice II" began with an image of ice across five copperplates (seen here, in State I) that were incrementally destroyed by ferric chloride and printed in various combinations. The plates were regularly reshaped in acid until nearly destroyed. The end result is a series of 100 etchings tracking the deterioration of the image.