Cradle to grave

Cradle to grave (2023). Beaten Thai paper mulberry bark covers, abaca and milkweed coma/seed paper endsheets, bark lace and inkjet print on paper thread embedded into abaca paper pages. 10 x 8.25 x 0.5” closed, 16.6” wide open. Tufts University, W. Van Clark, Jr Library Collection.

Embedded paper thread (whose text is obscured in the process of making) and bark lace trace a universal arc of human life. The text, on translucent abaca paper, has been laced into the same paper for pages.

Cradle to grave

We’re all made of the same stuff

and believe that we begin on our own

then meet companions along the way

These bonds set our hearts alight.

Invariably, we part

only to find more bonds, more birds to flock with

then return to the original ground,
transformed yet utterly the same.