Paper

Indicators: Water Howellia and Reed Canarygrass
Cut paper, wood, paper porcelain, monitoring tools, 2023
6’ x 7.5’ x 1’

The Indicators series of work visualizes my conversations and time spent out in the field with friend and Botanist from the Latah Soil and Water Conservation District, Brenda Erhardt, as she monitors Water Howellia, a threatened plant species in Idaho.  This piece brings attention to the relationship between Water Howellia and Reed Canarygrass as an indication of larger impacts on our regional landscape over time.

My interest stems from the actual work of tromping through ponds looking for plants, but also the larger metaphors about caring for parts of our world that are seemingly insignificant or fragile, such as a plant most people don’t know the name of or will never see. 

In this series, I am guided by the question “why should we care?” This iteration isn’t an answer, but rather my current stage of listening and looking.

Indicators project: 2022 Fieldwork images taken at vernal ponds near the Palouse River between Harvard and Princeton, Idaho.

You’re Invited

Cut and found paper interactive installation, 2021
8’ x 5’ x 1’

University of Idaho Prichard Art Gallery, CAA Faculty Exhibit, Moscow, Idaho
Collaboration with David Herbold, Felix Herbold, Finn Herbold.

Make Believe

Cut paper, 2006
10’ x 5’ x 2’

Center for Visual Art, Metropolitan State University of Denver

Make Believe was the culminating project in a series of work about childhood imagination. As a young girl, I carried paper ponies in my pockets. Revisiting that habit for this series, I landed on the artform of contemporary and historical cut paper. Make Believe was my first large scale paper installation, and over a decade later I am still fascinated with the possibilities such a simple material holds.

Walk Wander, Farm Acre

Cut paper, 2008

Art Farm Residency, Marquette, Nebraska

Here Nor There

Cut Paper, 2010
7’ x 6 ‘ x 1 ‘

Art Prize, Grand Rapids Public Museum, Grand Rapids, Michigan

Large cut paper installation depicting the anatomical heart as an emotional and poetic vessel.

Two-dimensional cut paper

Branches and Bridges, 2019
cut paper, thread
20’’ x 20’’

Branches and Bridges, 2019
cut paper, thread
20’’ x 20’’

Making Bears Happy, 2015
Cut paper
24’’ x 17’’

Making Bears Happy, 2015
Cut paper
24’’ x 17’m .

Gaps and Unknowns, Yellowo-billed cuckoo
2017
Cut paper, thread
8’’ x 8’’

Gaps and Unknowns, Sockeye Salmon
2017
Cut paper, thread
8’’ x 8’’.

Gaps and Unknowns, Spalding’s catchfly
2017
Cut paper, thread
8’’ x 8’’

Raise and Ripen, Blue, 2017
Cut and painted paper
27’’ x 21’’

Listening Practice: Wild Strawberries, 2023
Cut and painted paper
27’’ x 21‘’

Lauren

McCleary

Recent Works