My newer studio work has concerned itself with the littoral marge and what the tide brings in; objects at fishing sites in harbors; and our human interaction with the sea. I sometimes incorporate objects I find into the work: scraps of styrofoam, tree branches, fisherman's rope. I am experimenting with unusual casting methods to produce form: expandable foam with no mold, colored resin poured in layers as it thickens; fast-setting plastic poured directly onto rivulets in sand at low tide.
Most recently, time spent in the woods of New England has prompted a renewed attention to the forest landscape: tree scars and galls; river rocks and ice formations. I want to look at the edges where woods and the built environment meet, for juxtapositions of human and nature’s activity. And I am traveling to a landscape new to me, a rural environment in Minnesota, for a residency in August. I hope to gather ideas in these diverse places about our relation to our environment at this current moment."
-Marilu Swett