In the diptych that began The Forest for the Trees / The Trees for the Forest, embroidered text asks: “How do you love something you don’t know?” and “How do you know something this big?” This series grows from a desire to love nature more deeply and a frustration with the human-made lenses that distort our view of the landscape. 

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Merit badges, typically awarded for human achievement in the outdoors, both highlight features of the landscape and block our view of it as a whole. Stock photos present idealized scenes, erasing any trace of human interaction. Their colors echo cyanotypes, nodding to a history of documenting nature. Yet they are digitally printed, without direct contact with sunlight or the land itself. 

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By layering these human filters, the series confronts the difficulty of stepping outside an anthropocentric viewpoint in order to truly know and love nature.