Take a sneak peek at the work I have in the “Co-Terminous” exhibition that opens this Thursday, October 22 at Union Hall Denver! Using papier-mache, I created these sculptures of cairns for an art installation. I used landscaping rocks from our condominium's parking lot as references. Cairns pose a major threat to national parks as more and more people moving and stacking rocks disrupts microecosystems. Building cairns also causes confusion for hikers who rely on cairns for f

“Industrial Tourism is a threat to national parks.” [1] The first patch I made was Off Trail. The Demerit Badge captures a hiking boot in mid-air about to crush a precious flower. On my hikes, I have noticed many cutoffs where people have clearly left the trail and scarred the land. This damages ecosystems and sometimes destroys rare plants and flowers. Patches are a great influence on my art. My husband and I collect patches on our visits to state and national parks. This is

Mary Yaeger’s female merit badges helped me find the new direction I wanted to go in with my work. I am interested in how Yeager reframed the traditional boy scout merit badges through a feminist lens. Her merit badges depict female “rites of passage” and the manipulations females undergo in an effort to achieve an idealized beauty. Her work led me to create my own spin off of the national park patches and to create patches that show the negative effects of overcrowding of ou

As part of my current series Paradise Lost, I create merit and demerit badges that reframe and modernize the traditional "Leave No Trace" ideals. Seeing a smoke-filled sky today made me think of my meticulously hand-embroidered patch I Do Not Cause Wildfires. Please visit https://lnt.org/why/7-principles/minimize-campfire-impacts/ to learn how and when you can safely enjoy a campfire. What other socially responsible actions do you take to avoid accidentally starting a wildfir