2023 Marks the 10th anniversary of Shed

Throughout human history and across cultures, hair has been saved for memorial, ritual and spiritual purposes. Steeped in mythology and a verifiable biological parameter, it can indicate ancestral relationship or serve as forensic evidence. Hair is a physical print of the individual it belongs to and in this instance transforms into an external embodiment of healing from child sexual abuse. Shed came into being by capturing digital scans of my own hair from a collection I amassed over a six year period.

Fourteen wood blocks were laser cut and printed on an etching press with cyan ink. Once all ninety linear feet of blueprints were printed, I began to excise the spaces between hairs with a razor blade. After one year of cutting, the prints were transformed into lace-like strands evoking DNA molecules. The process of methodical slicing became a cathartic metaphor of surgically extracting shame and familial trauma. By cutting light into darkness, Shed highlights a specific period of time in my life and crosses boundaries of past and future, despair, hope and resilience.


hand-printed, hand-cut, laser engravings, beeswax,
3”-6” x 40” each, variable.