I started creating small paper houses in 2016, calling this series Tree Houses. The small paper houses has been an ongoing series of photographs where I place the paper houses in parts of the natural environment like woodpecker holes, on stumps and between leaves. To learn more about the series of small paper houses, keep reading!
Much of my current practice involves working outdoors as my studio and using paper to add or transform an area of a landscape that is close to me and I have spent time with. I see both the process of making the work and documenting the work in a photograph as the artwork.
In the Tree Houses series, I create miniature brown paper houses and place them in the landscape as tiny villages on tree stumps and in nooks and crannies of the natural environment. The houses are varied in size. After placing them, I take a photograph and remove the house to place it in a new location next time. This series signifies the idea that home can be made where you make it and the importance of valuing the natural environment as a home. The small paper houses create miniature worlds or communities within the photo that is taken.
I like taking the paper houses with me on hikes and walks to be able to capture new photos to add in the series. I would like to create a book of the small paper houses in the future.
You can take a look at some of the small paper houses series in the images below.
This series of Tree Houses has been featured in:
Art Promenade (Photograph of Treehouses), City of Waterloo Public Art Installation in 2022
State of Becoming, Button Factory Arts, Waterloo, ON in 2017
Tree House (select photograph) Tiny Spoon (Issue 10) in 2023
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