Leavings

I first became interested in the Japanese beetle during a particularly hot and dry summer in Iowa City. Perhaps it was a result of the season or of my having moved to a new home ripe with some of the beetles’ most preferred foods, but I became overwhelmed by its pervasive, relentless assault on my garden. As the summer wore on, I began finding leaf remains gathering at the bases of trees and blowing in the wind as if it were fall. Their presence was out of place; out of season. But when I began to look more closely, what struck me was the beauty of form that the beetle had inadvertently left behind. Starved of oxygen and drained of color, these leaf skeletons would soon crumble and return to the earth. But, for a moment, they existed between realms, and reflected a loss that spoke to the complexity of the natural world. Somehow, it seems, even an act of destruction can leave something beautiful in its wake.

Leavings contains 12 folios of 100% Japanese Gampi that have been hand-dyed with persimmon tannin and treated with konnyaku to mimic the sound and texture of withering foliage. Completed in 2017.

The deluxe edition is letterpress printed from hand-drawn images on photopolmer plates with successive laser-cutting on each folio. It is housed in a hard-cover Japanese portfolio and contains a linden leaf specimen from the artist's yard in Iowa City housed under glass. Edition of 5 + 2 artist proofs. Out of print.

The standard edition is letterpress printed from hand-drawn images on photopolmer plates. It is housed in handmade paper wrapper that has been dyed with persimmon tannin and hand burnished. Edition of 15. Out of print.

IN THE NEWS

See Vamp and Tramp Booksellers’ Instagram feature of Leavings (standard edition) here.

COLLECTIONS

Auburn University
Bainbridge Island Museum of Art
Boston Athenaeum
Cal Poly 
Columbia University*
New York Public Library
Penn State*
RISD*
Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library
Truman State University
UC Berkeley
University of Colorado
University of Florida*
University of Oregon 
University of Pennsylvania
Private collections
(indicates Deluxe edition holdings*)