light drawings

i have made light drawings for the last 20 years in my garden, using specimens grown there.
i make them on sunny days, mostly in summer…but each season yields beautiful ingredients.
i love the tactile, unpredictable process, and how it preserves the garden’s plants, on paper.

light drawing is a 150+ year old photographic process that does not use a camera. instead, light sensitive chemicals are painted onto watercolor paper under cover of darkness. then, once the paper is dry, the paper is brought out into the sunlight and specimens are placed on top. after a period of time, the sunshine, paper, and pigments create a chemical reaction, leaving a shadow of the specimen on the paper.

each light drawing is unique and impossible to replicate, an alchemistic moment captured on paper.

these light drawings have been featured over the years in Bloom, selvedge, martha stewart living, food & wine, and for sale at alabama chanin, john derian, heath ceramics, hable construction, terrain, west elm, sugar tools & a handful of other small shops.