Lithic Memory #2, 2025
Copper Sheeting, Copper Wire, Liver of Sulfur, 19’’ x 24’’ x 23’’

Lithic Memory is about recording the memory and essence of a fragment of place and time. I hammer copper sheets around volcanic basalt stones—forms birthed through the power of lava, the building blocks of life, and the creative force of Pele. Using a modern repoussé technique, I apply pressure and force with a metalworking hammer, allowing the surface, weight, and memory of the stone to speak through the transformative, malleable copper.

It’s slow, physical work. Each strike captures something that can’t be drawn or photographed: tension, time, and pressure. The copper holds a memory of the stone, just as the land holds onto its own stories—shaped by fire, by eruption, by the hands of the goddess.

I use liver of sulfur to deepen the patina, drawing out dark volcanic tones that echo the stone’s birth in Pele’s realm. The copper sheets are stitched together—like a wound, but also a bond. A connection to time, to home, and to the elemental forces that shape us.

Copper becomes a connector—between past and present, land and body, technology and earth. It remembers. It transforms.