The Process

Labor de Arte is a collection of intentional labor. It’s a process that transforms nature into material tools and effort into creation.

This isn’t mass production. It’s about accessibility, care, and deliberate choice in every object. Each piece carries a story: from my hands that shape it to the landscape I harvest it from, transforming energy into meaning.

I work primarily with vines and shoots like Oriental Bittersweet and Bamboo, both considered invasive in the DMV (District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia) and greater mid-Atlantic region. These plants spread rapidly, challenging local ecosystems.

Harvesting and transforming them into art tools is a way to participate in a cycle of reclamation. I turn ecological challenges into creative opportunities.

Each tool is unique and imperfect, shaped by hands that learn, experiment, and sometimes meet resistance from the material itself. These variations are not flaws. They are evidence of process, testimony of my presence, and an invitation to engage with creation in a way that honors human touch in a world dominated by algorithmic machines.

This collection is a narrative played by hand, artifact, and surface. Creation is accessible while maintaining the dignity of craft. Labor isn’t simply work. It’s the facilitation of learning, transforming, and sharing.

I document my labor to share the process, inviting you into a conversation about creation, care, and the ways we can engage more responsibly with the natural world.

Materials & Transformation

Vines, like the Oriental Bittersweet, are stripped of bark, sized, and cut before being carbonized to make charcoal. From these harvests, I create soft charcoal vines, fine powder, and water-based ink. Each form reveals different qualities of the material and offers distinct possibilities for mark-making.

Bamboo reeds are foraged and shaped into dip pens, each suited to a different kind of expression. Some are whittled to a short, fine point for close, slow, deliberate strokes. Longer reeds with wider tips invite arm-length gestures, bold strokes, and dynamic liquid washes.

They are tools for quiet calligraphy as well as dramatic coverage, allowing you to explore both intimacy and scale in your work.

Even the byproducts of this labor are given new purpose. When stripping the vines, I save and sterilize the shavings to use as padding in packaging. They surround and protect the precious vines as they travel to your hands and their final, material surface.