“I want to create objects that are haunting with sentiment for my viewer to hopefully feel too.”

MH+D ASKS STONE TO TELL US MORE.

Q. What is the biggest driver for your art?

A. It’s expressing a feeling or emotion that there are no words for. I hope for my art to be read as a poem: a simple gathering of words/objects left for the reader/viewer to interpret. My concepts tend to lean more somber, ethereal, and tender.

Q. What inspired your series Ashes to Ashes?

A. Ashes to Ashes is a series of thrifted figurines I bound together and covered in layers of ash. The ash eventually obscures the identity of these figurines, giving the illusion of something lost to time. Like a relic. This series began when I found myself equally fascinated and overwhelmed at Goodwill by the shelves full of perhaps once cherished objects, now brightly lit under fluorescent bulbs, and stuck with a price tag. I started collecting groupings of these figurines, specifically trying to tell a story of who the previous owner could have been. I’m very tactile and have always identified as a sculptor, but over the past few years my work has shifted into my sculptures existing through photography. For example, each form from the Ashes to Ashes series is a sculpture, but I ultimately wanted them to be viewed as a photograph. I collaborated with a local photographer, Erin Little. Erin had the brilliant idea to shoot these against black velvet, and I am in love with the black abyss that surrounds these relics.

Q. And of course we have to ask: what inspired the series Dust to Dust?

A. Dust to Dust began over ten years ago when I was on a several months’ long hiking trip. On my hike I began collecting fallen butterfly and moth wings and pressing them between the pages of my journal. I recently uncovered them and photographed them individually and in clusters. I’m fascinated by the way they’re torn in some places and transparent in others from losing their dust. Each time I handle them, little colorful fibers fall off and they become more weathered. In the final presentation of these photographs, I layered vellum over a few wings as an ode to time and the decay that will finally make them fade away.

Q. How does your art influence your living space?

A. My husband, Forrest, and I are both makers. It’s been a dream of ours to have our studios, a metal shop, and a wood shop all be part of our home. We were finally able to make that happen two years ago.
We are always creating, whether they’re our own personal projects, something for a client, or objects for our space. My favorite part about our home is that we get to live with art and furniture that we would never be able to afford, but because we made it, or a friend did a trade with us, we get to live among really meaningful and unique objects with a story. I am always inspired by my surroundings and am constantly collecting and gathering natural materials. For example, I’ve been collecting my cat’s whiskers when I find them on the ground. And right now I’m experimenting with making pigments using the plants that surround our house.

MH+D IS PROUD TO PARTNER WITH ACCLAIMED ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHER TRENT BELL ON HIS ARCHITECTURE, DESIGN, AND PHOTOGRAPHY PODCAST. TO HEAR BELL’S CONVERSATION WITH STONE, PLEASE VISIT TRENTBELL.COM/PODCAST