Habitat

Each collage in the Habitat series centers on an animal—or group of animals—whose living range is being reduced or reshaped through human activity. These figures are drawn from archival image sources, including the New York Public Library and the Library of Congress, then carefully isolated and reprinted on inkjet washi. Removed from their original contexts, they become both specimen and witness.

Set against this, ink elements drawn from my ongoing library of shodō-influenced marks cut across the surface. Originally painted on Arturo blue paper and cut out by hand, leaving a slight edge, these lines carry a different kind of record: gesture, breath, and time. Where the archive fixes and names, the brushstroke moves—suggesting forces less easily contained.

The collages are built on card-weight handmade Japanese paper, sourced in Kyoto, grounding the work in a material tradition shaped by touch and repetition.

Across the series, the animals do not simply occupy space—they appear within fields already altered, encroached upon, or abstracted. Habitat becomes less a place than a condition: something fragmented, negotiated, and increasingly unstable under human presence.

Each work measures 11 × 15 inches. The series currently includes approximately ten collages and continues to evolve.