From the Sea

Thank you to St. Michael's Printshop and the Bonavista Biennale for supporting and giving me the opportunity to explore this body of work during the 2021 Bonavista Biennale mobile print press residency.

In 2021 I moved to Bonavista for the summer and spent a lot of time beach combing. I mostly found crab legs, bits and pieces of shells far removed from their original owners. I also collected these bits and pieces of shell; displaying them on the desk that I had in a room I was renting; a small attempt to make it feel more at home. My mom, sister and niece drove up the peninsula to visit me that summer. I observed them follow the same generational tradition of scavenging the beach, turning up rocks, and picking out the delicate husks of sea urchin shells that had managed to survive the tide. I found myself thinking about the comfort this gave me, a small act that let me find a sense of that ever-waning childlike wonder again.

I've found myself wanting to preserve things; to hold onto a lot of these precious objects. Most of the items I scavenged in the summer of 2021 have been lost to moving, or simply crushed under a pack of pencils in my backpack. But they're preserved in my paintings and my prints for the time being. They will exist as post-card sized love-letters to an act that has grounded me, and let me paint again.