Sacredness of Quietude

Basho’s Moon 56"h X 68"w - Cast handmade gampi paper into lashed willow branches, lashed creosote branches.
Enso 17.75” h x 36”w - Encaustic painting on wood panel.
The Clearing Cast mulberry bark papers onto armatures of lashed branches. Bundled and bent tamarisk branches. Raku and pitfired ceramic vessels containing colored sand from various AZ sites.
The Clearing Cast mulberry bark papers onto armatures of lashed branches. Bundled and bent tamarisk branches. Raku and pitfired ceramic vessels containing colored sand from various AZ sites.
The Clearing Cast mulberry bark papers onto armatures of lashed branches. Bundled and bent tamarisk branches. Raku and pitfired ceramic vessels containing colored sand from various AZ sites.
Out of a Storm and Into the Sky Site specific outdoor sculpture. Bent and lashed tamarisk branches. Pigmented high shrinkage flax paper forms suspended from river cane.
Shelter: A Place of Healing Installation of high shrinkage flax pulp covering a structure of bent and lashed tamarisk branches. Forest of mesquite branches, leaves, and natural elements.
Shelter: A Place of Healing detail : low table with arrangement of northern Arizona sandstone and ocean rounded bricks from the coast of New Hampshire.
A Prayer Site specific outdoor sculpture. Tall flame like forms of pigmented wheat straw and flax paper. Blue “feather” forms of high shrinkage flax pulp clacked and rustled in the wind. Branches, quartz stones found in the desert.
A Prayer detail
Burial Site specific outdoor sculpture. Vacuum cast handmade paper panels suspended from tall river cane, bundles of straw, natural elements.
Shrine: The Protections That Bind Us Dark grey “cave” walls of handmade paper, metallic leafing. Backlighting with theatrical gels. Long corridor of lashed river cane.
Five Elements: A Journey Cast flax and gampi papers, mixed media fabric banners, depicting fire, water, earth and air. Cast 8’ long boat suspended from the ceiling. Viewers are invited to enter and sit under the boat. Low pitfired clay slab supports four small clay vessels holding water, red sand, charcoal and empty with air. Straw and branches. Theatrical lighting. Collaborative with artist Robert Renfrow.
Five Elements: A Journey detail of photo transfer and bleach discharge fabric panel. Robert Renfrow
Five Elements: A Journey Cast flax and gampi papers, mixed media fabric banners, depicting fire, water, earth and air. Cast 8’ long boat suspended from the ceiling. Viewers are invited to enter and sit under the boat. Low pitfired clay slab supports four small clay vessels holding water, red sand, charcoal and empty with air. Straw and branches. Theatrical lighting. Collaborative with artist Robert Renfrow.
Five Elements: A Journey detail table with vessels
Labyrinth Meditation: Human Conflict Installation of cast pigmented paper rocks, backlit pulp sprayed panels with large watermarked symbols, and “collaged” photo transfered imagery at the bottom of each panel. Collaborative Sculptural Installation by Catherine Nash, Robert Renfrow and 4 artists from Sweden: Hans Assarsson, Ulf Ling-Vannerus, Daniella Mika, and Margareta Mannervik. 25’ diameter
Labyrinth Meditation: Human Conflict detail
Labyrinth Meditation: Human Conflict Artist book installation collaborative with Robert Renfrow and 4 Swedish artists. Photo transferred imagery on accordion format pulp painted sheets of flax handmade paper. Small glass cups of earth samples from over 100 different places on the planet.
Within Skin: A Passage Environmental installation with large sheets of handmade Japanese paper of Kozo (mulberry bark) and New Zealand flax (8’5” X 5’6”). Cone of Kozo paper, New Mexican white sand, pit fired clay vessel, cottonwood log, pine needles, grapevines and palo verde branches. Theatrical lighting. diameter12’
Within Skin: A Passage detail
Under Twilight’s Dream Front facade of sprayed flax fiber in a gradation of color. Interior: dome shaped structure of sprayed flax. Watermarks drawn in 17’ long wet sheets with a jet stream to create constellations. Commissioned by the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA. 16’ diameter, 14.5’ ht. at apex.
Under Twilight’s Dream Front facade of sprayed flax fiber in a gradation of color. Interior: dome shaped structure of sprayed flax. Watermarks drawn in 17’ long wet sheets with a jet stream to create constellations. Commissioned by the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA. 16’ diameter, 14.5’ ht. at apex.
Under Twilight’s Dream detail of interior walls
Pines at Night Oil and encaustic painting,mixed media, bundled burnt branches. 46”h X 22”w
Fog Oil and encaustic painting, mixed media 48 1/2”h X 12”w
Fog Oil and encaustic painting, mixed media 48 1/2”h X 12”w
In the Field Encaustic painting on wood 10” X 10”
Pond Encaustic painting on wood 6”X 6”
Bend Encaustic painting on wood 21 1/2” X 29”

An intuitive relationship between the natural world and ourselves evokes the desire to create within me. As a child, I would spend entire days, unaware of time passing, just observing the minutiae of nature or quietly daydreaming in the nook of a tree or behind the stone wall. Children naturally find and create secret places to hide: building forts outside, nests in a closet, or simply throwing a blanket over a table, seeking quietude and safety.

“…I live in great density…
Shelter lures me. I slump down into the thick foliage.
…In the forest, I am my entire self.
Everything is possible in my heart just as it is in the hiding places in ravines.”
-Rene Menard, Le Livre des Arbres, 1956

Our western culture’s harried pace, dictated by the ticking clock, blinds us to the peaceful rhythms of the natural world. Experiences I’ve had with Native American friends and their peaceful understanding of our place in Nature remind me of the dreaming of childhood.