Statement:

“Mother of the Marsh”, is a visual response to the poem, “Marsh Behind Chalker Beach”, by Ed Gaudet. With charcoal and handmade paper, I visualize the poem from the perspective of the blue bellied heron; a silent spectator of the marsh and narrator’s memories within it. She marks the destination of the marsh the same way the white shovel in the poem does. The title of this charcoal drawing serves as a double meaning; nodding towards the mysterious inner workings of mother nature and Mother Mary who serves as an advocate in the kingdom of God in Christian belief. From the illustrations perspective, the marsh is the heron’s kingdom, one of many organisms that function within a habitat very essential to our ecosystem.

A royal halo of the setting sun radiates behind the perched heron; exposing the paper behind her. Her body is scratched and massaged into the paper’s fibers with charcoal, a stick charred by flame and used by our ancestors to document the world for nearly 30,000 years. The fibers of the paper are made out of ethically sourced cattail reeds provided by artist and forager, Jennifer Allen. I boiled the reeds in soda ash. The reeds were then shaved and beaten into a pulp and mixed with upcycled paper pulp. Boiled okra was used as an emulsion agent to suspend the fibers in a vat of water which was then captured with my mold and deckle to make the paper. This method is inspired by Hanji paper making in Korea. The upcycled paper pulp helps lighten the paper’s appearance and create a smoother drawing surface while adding a great source of contrast to the bold dark marks left by the charcoal. 

The purpose of the paper and charcoal is to bring a piece of the marsh to the viewer to presently experience it in another format. The Heron’s body contorts into a compass for time; the paper and her bone chilling eyes presently acknowledge the viewer as her head faces the past and body towards the future. Her puffed feathers curl into long intricate root systems that find their way deep under water and sediment. This detail highlights how plantlife thrive within their environment while acting as natural flood control to protect their surrounding habitats.

I invite the viewer to interact with the marsh and discover some of its hidden creatures that hide within it. To surrender their eyes and be willfully carried by flecks of white poking out of the creamy hazed cattail fibers, guiding them around the page the way an adventurer follows stars in the sky. I want the audience to take in the majesty of the marsh packaged as a dream-like memory where the world melds into one outstanding interconnected and functioning being.