SHADOWS TAKE FORM
New Work by Carissa Toomey & Robert Patterson

Turning our attention to the forgotten things that occupy the
periphery of our lives, both immediately around us and distant
physically and temporally, we find their alluring vestiges, oxidized
and mysterious: neglected flora and fauna, obsolete objects and
mediums, discarded folkways. We were inspired to create reliquaries
and icons for these things, elevating them to a place of notice
outside of our collective subconscious.

We have interpreted these liminal artifacts using methods that
involve transferring materials to substrates in a way intrinsically
more delicate than drawing or painting. These delicate processes
have conjured ghosts and help their shadows take form in intentional
and unexpected ways, renewing them from the recesses of our
collective memories. In addition to our visualizations, a repetitive,
ritualistic motion in rendering (as a chant or mandala) restores the
old ways of being to our subjects, recontextualizing them as the
sacred resources we have newly rediscovered. By drawing these
connections between esoteric symbologies, archaic wilderness,
and our own modern interactions with our natural surroundings,
we are giving them new life and exalting them once again.