Nigredo: Felted Sculptures of Transformation
Nigredo is an ongoing series of hand-felted sculptures exploring transformation, repetition, material process, and the inner work of confronting what has been hidden.
In alchemy, nigredo (the blackening) is the first stage of the Magnum Opus, a period of dissolution and breakdown that makes transformation possible. The idea later resonated with Jungian psychology and the process of bringing the shadow, or what we suppress or fail to recognize, into consciousness.
I am interested in this uncertain space between dissolution and becoming: when an old form no longer holds, but the next has not yet fully emerged.
Material + Process
I explore nigredo through wet felting, a process of physical transformation. Loose fibers are layered, saturated with water and soap, then repeatedly rolled, rubbed, compressed, and agitated until they become a dense, interconnected structure.
The process becomes a material parallel to the concept: pressure, friction, entanglement, and change create a new form.
The sculptures combine wool, flax, ramie, upcycled viscose and silk. Wool provides the structure, while plant fibers and silk behave differently; these materials are wonderful for resisting, tangling, catching light, and leaving irregular traces across the surface. I allow these differences to remain visible rather than forcing the materials into uniformity.
I incorporate locally sourced wool and collected rainwater into my wet-felting practice, connecting the work to the animals, materials, weather, and place where it is made in Northern New Mexico.
Repetition + Rhythm
For my 2026 solo exhibition Curious Maximalist in Santa Fe, Nigredo expanded into 18 large sculptures and 13 smaller studies.
I work within a repeated circular format without attempting to create identical objects. Shrinkage, fiber placement, density, gesture, and the unpredictable behavior of wet felting give each piece its own surface and form.
Same materials. Same process. Different outcomes.
Together, the works create a field of variations with folds, ridges, scars, exposed fibers, subtle shifts in black, and evidence of the hand.
Nigredo asks what happens when transformation is understood not as a single dramatic event, but as an ongoing practice of breaking down, paying attention, and becoming.