KM: What part does water play in your work?
NC: It plays a big part. It was one of the things that made me become an artist, and it’s a big influence on my work. I love being in water, and I make my work in water.
“Breathing Under Water” is made of paper called abaca, and when I first made this form, it was a drawing of coral. When I added it to the paper, I thought, now it feels like lungs. In this piece, the difference between what lives under water and the idea of us being made of water are all part of what happened in the work.
I said I also make work in water. This piece (“Topography of the Body”) was made by layering different colors of pigmented pulp in a giant vat of water and pulp. I created layers and thought about the movement of the water and the color and how the various colors and shapes would overlay each other.
KM: Yes, because as the paper dries, it makes wavy patterns that reflect the whole idea of water.
NC: In this piece, “Make Visible,” I had an interesting experience experimenting with a white fiber called kozo that I hadn’t used before. When I finished the sheet of paper, it was sitting in the water, and then I painted on it with colored pulp and layered on images of cotton pulp. When I picked it up, I had made the paper so thin that the middle was empty. Then I made another piece of paper, a different color, turned one over the other, and they miraculously bonded together.
I love this piece because it shows so many layers, which is the experience of being in water. When you look at water, you see what’s on the surface, what’s reflected, and what’s underneath. This piece shows that experience.
