let the land hold you is an installation created in response to the Calf Canyon fire which burned for four months in the summer of 2022, spreading over 300,000 acres in what are referred to as the Sangre de Cristo mountains. 

This work seeks to underscore the devastation here, consider ways to move forward, and asks what led us here. The violence and displacement that has occurred in this area reverberates back to us in extreme weather movements, becoming the result of decades of mismanagement. 

These cotton and silk fabrics were stained by the artist with local red clay. They are marked with charcoal and ash. The muslin pieces were taken to the burn site and danced and dragged across the charred surface of a downed tree. Using materials sourced from the burn site is a collaboration in storytelling. 

With this work, I weave personal stories and stories of this place to create a tangible conversation, using materials sourced from the burn scar and mark making with my hands. Through this work, I tell a story between myself and the material. A story informed by the lines of my fingertips and the lines of the bark layer– the memory held in me and the material.