I'm a collage artist working mostly with found images from books, and occasionally magazines. I haven’t been practicing long, but after participating in The Library Taxidermists showcase, it has become a constant in my life. Collage, for me, is intuitive and chaotic, but also deeply precise. There's something about the physical process -the cutting, shifting, layering - that feels meditative and grounding.

My husband died in late 2023, and in many ways, I died too. The person I was is gone, and the person I am now is still taking shape. The title, “Haunting or Haunted?”, refers to a feeling that Grand Forks is now full of ghosts for me, but also that I might be one of them. Discovering this art form helps me process my own thoughts. Death shows up often in my work (sometimes it’s front and centre, sometimes it’s in the background) but I also think there’s a strange kind of joy in this work: a strange humour, a strange calm. For a period, I became obsessed with this image of six Soviet children, standing there in these giant underpants, goggles, and shoes, all huddled around a UV lamp. They've crept into every piece in this collection. There’s something about their presence that feels both ominous and tender. They're so vulnerable and exposed, yet oddly powerful. It’s unclear whether they're being observed or doing the observing. That duality resonates with me. Sometimes I’ve felt like I’m living in a fishbowl, visible and scrutinised, yet still unknowable behind the walls I’ve built.

These kids became my muses and gave me space to explore those contradictions. Sometimes it’s really uncomfortable, and yet it always feels like home