Seeds of Abundance: Limits, Loss & Regeneration
Scalehouse Gallery, Bend, Oregon
March 6 to April 24, 2026
Opening Reception: March 6, 5 to 7 PM

Seeds of Abundance: Limits, Loss & Regeneration was a multi-room installation exploring abundance not through accumulation, but through attention to what already surrounds us. Using natural and salvaged materials gathered on site and at Authentique Artfarm (branches, seeds, flowers, stones, and found elements), I created a series of immersive environments that invited slowing down, reflection, and participation.

In a time of ecological overshoot, biodiversity loss, and growing systemic complexity, the exhibition drew inspiration from the thinking of Nate Hagens and The Great Simplification, emphasizing response over solution. Visitors engaged through small gestures (touching, listening, contributing, observing), highlighting the power of limits, care, and collective presence.

The show extended a body of work that began with large-scale outdoor installations in the Mojave Desert and became a quieter, more intimate meditation on loss, regeneration, and the possibility of meaning rooted in simplicity.

Visitors were invited to bring a small natural element, such as a seed, seedpod, dried flower, or stone, and add it to A Sense of Place, a growing communal structure in the main gallery, along with a handwritten note. These small gestures became acts of presence, care, and connection.

The City of Bend, Oregon, sponsored this exhibition.

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A Sense of Place

Participatory installation; willow, dried plants and flowers, bark, plank, steel
H 85 in. x W 100 in. x D 90 in.
A growing, communal structure built from willow branches harvested at Authentique Artfarm, with dried plants and flowers from the farm and from friends. Visitors added a natural element and a handwritten note. The bark stripped from the branches lay on the ground beneath. My neighbor and friend Robert Andrews designed the writing console, building it from an old farm plank and steel.

Bloom

Immersive black-light installation; black paper, dried local plants, reflective dots

Dried local plants glowed in a darkened room. Visitors placed small reflective dots on the walls, gradually forming a luminous field of seeds, spores, or stars.

Mapping the Field: Topography of a Garden

An ongoing series made from plants grown from seed at Authentique Artfarm, now in its fourth growing season. Working with materials kept close to their natural state, these pieces map the garden as a living system shaped by variation, chance, and quiet transformation.

Field Notes
Installation; cyanotypes, thread, wood
H 65 in. x W 117 in. x D 1 in.
Cyanotypes of plants from Authentique Artfarm, printed with sunlight, then cut and mounted on wood, some stitched with bright thread. A quiet record of place and season, shaped by repeated acts of attention.

Cycle of Life: Capitulum 1 and 2
Assemblages made of dried sunflower heads
Capitulum 1: H 20 in. x W 37 in. x D 2.5 in.
Capitulum 2: H 22 in. x W 38 in. x D 2.5 in.
Assemblages of dried sunflower heads harvested from the garden. Some heads hold onto their seeds while others release them, which explains the difference between the two. Most of the sunflowers were left standing for the birds, and the plants stayed up through the winter as shelter for insect eggs.

Seednet: Things That Fall Together
Assemblage made of fallen pine cones
H 44 in. x W 57 in. x D 5 in.
Fallen pine cones assembled into clustered forms and adapted to the wall they hung on. Working with a single repeated element allows play with scale and grouping, and shows how surprise and beauty can emerge from what is already present.

Gathered

Found wood, reclaimed wood
Small assemblages of Oregon coast driftwood inlaid with reclaimed, stained wood. Each piece is built through careful layering, echoing erosion, accumulation, and growth.

Liminal Wood

Found wood, reclaimed wood, laser-cut recycled wood circles
Fallen branches with the bark removed, mapped with hundreds of small recycled wood circles, each cut, stained, and glued one by one. A meditative process that echoes the garden’s rhythm.

Liminal Wood: Seedskin

Liminal Wood: Seedskin Stem

Liminal Resonance

Carved wood, patinated steel
H 49 in. x W 73 in. x D 44 in.
2025

Hand-carved suspended wooden elements inspired by fallen ponderosa pine branches, made during my 2025 residency at Montalvo Arts Center. The only work in the exhibition not entirely made in Bend. The steel frame was fabricated by my neighbor and friend Robert Andrews.