Dana Bush

ARTIST STATEMENT

I am both an artist and a professional ecologist. By training and inclination, I see the world as relationships and movement. I see the verbs between the nouns, the interactions between species, and among species and habitat: predation, carbon exchange, grazing, forest fire, drought, flood, balance and change. I see the relationship between humans and the earth – our impacts and our love.

I paint species and elements on paper or silk, then form them into sculptures that portray relationships. I use transparent layers, folded paper like kaleidocycles and flexagons, mobiles, light tubes, and wearable art to convey ecological concepts. Sometimes I paint species just because they are beautiful, or unseen and unloved.

My favorite techniques are rozome (a Japanese form of wax resist silk painting), lino prints and stencils, and transparent watercolours on paper. My recent work uses natural dyes and pigments on silk. I love both the lifelike movement of silk, and the way the light shines through the images. I use beauty to convey love, respect, and connection.