An Absent Presence: The Woman Doctor of Mount Desert
Enveloped (West of Long Pond) (2025), Watercolor, gouache, ink, toned cyanotype, hand and machine embroidery on bed sheets, chiffon, cotton, and batting, 90 x 69 "
Last Winter in Pretty Marsh (2024), Watercolor, acrylic, cyanotype, and machine embroidery on cotton, voile, crinoline, and bed sheets, 54 x 61”
View to Gott’s Island (2024), Watercolor, acrylic, cyanotype, and machine embroidery on cotton and bed sheets, 54 x 60”
Low Tide Trail (2025) Watercolor, gouache acrylic, ink, cyanotype, applique, on cotton and flannel, 66.5 x 78"
Boundaries (2024) Watercolor, cyanotype, and thread on cotton, chiffon, and bed sheets, 9 x 9"
Crossing (2024) Watercolor, cyanotype, and thread on cotton, chiffon, and bed sheets, 9 x 9"
Pathways (2024) Watercolor, cyanotype, and thread on cotton, chiffon, and bed sheets, 9 x 9"
Waiting (2024) Watercolor, cyanotype, and thread on cotton, chiffon, and bed sheets, 9 x 9"
Present Looking Past (Pathway to Mainland) (2024) Cyanotype, watercolor, and acrylic ink on cotton, 30 x 40"
The series An Absent Presence explores the maternal histories of Mount Desert Island, Maine in the 18th to 19th centuries. My seventh great-grandmother, Susanna Beal Milliken, was the first “doctoress” there during that time. I piece together her life, travels, and story from archival materials- mainly from those that show what the men in her life owned and did. My process includes both traditional and non-traditional quilting, painting, and photography techniques that create landscapes that are punctuated with fact and fiction.