"Almost all the pieces I’m making now have cranberry leaves, because cranberries heal the pH of the world, from a berry bog where I have been picking berries with my family and the community where my great grandparents grew up and continued to return with future generations to be in awe of and find ways to connect with and honor the power of the natural world.  

 

Most of the other flowers and plants integrated into my work come from other flowers and plants from the "living painting" gardens very intentionally planted by the painter who came before me at the Fairy Cottage where I live and create. The Fairy Cottage is located in the same Western Maine Mountain and Lake community as the cranberry bog and the place my great grandparents grew up and many generations of my family have shared outdoor, seasonal traditions from swimming and boating in spring and summer to berry picking in summer and fall to snowshoeing and x-country skiing in the winter.  

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The yarns and threads I choose for their color and texture, and I buy local whenever possible.  In all my work, I seek to replicate and draw attention to the most alchemic structures and patterns of support one can find in nature. It’s my way of amplifying Mother Nature’s voice and power in this time of epic climate change. Hexagons are a great building shape! They keep the bees alive, who not only keep the rest of the planet fed, but powerfully interconnected in their growth, too.  

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May we begin to see and understand the larger ecosystems of which we are just a small part and begin to plan our futures and our growth and development within the context of the entire larger community of beings here on this planet. Indigenous people across the planet (many of whom are matriarchal, as are the Wabanaki Tribes) have always understood things in this way and it is why the majority of the planet's remaining climate diversity exists in their communities."

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Email Kimberly at kimberly.crichton@gmail.com

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Here is an article written by Kimberly on the materiality of her work published in the UMVA arts magazine last fall.