Mended Leaves 

(Work-in-Progress), 2020-ongoing

Mended Leaves brings together my creative interest in motherhood and community with considerations of care and sustainability. This photographic series was initiated through my experience and subsequent reflection of being a primary caregiver during the COVID-19 pandemic. The artwork developed as I circled close to home, walking through my neighbourhood as a way to reclaim public space during the lockdowns. While on these excursions I collected petals and leaves and upon returning home these tokens were pressed in books, placed in vases, or laid out for immediate intervention. Using on-hand supplies, I began exploring ways to transform the foliage through repairing tears, matching and re-imagining colours, and other such experimentation. These instinctual and meditative explorations gave me time to reflect on the experience of mothering during a period filled with unease, when time bent, stood still, and stretched in unfamiliar ways. 

The series continues to evolve with new mending styles and background surfaces that reference natural and domestic space as it expands the my reflections past the pandemic and into current events and encounters. Mended Leaves is a navigation of experiences in my life and the elastic texture of the time within them. These photographs are holders of unpacked thoughts on responsibility and remembrance.