Zoe grew up on a homestead outside of Decorah Iowa, wandering through lush vegetable gardens and tangled prairies. Now, she spends her days in town, in a cozy garden behind an old Victorian house, with her husband, Kevan, and children, Alden and Gwendolyn. She earned her BA in Studio Art at St. Olaf College (‘11) where she focused on ceramics and cut paper. Since then, she has pursued other media, including drawing, embroidery, printmaking, and mixed media painting.
Art making is a form of radical self-care in a world that emphasizes speed, at the expense of connection. Slowing down to observe a bouquet of fading flowers, carefully sketching their arching stems and curling leaves, is a practice of meditation. Engraving this image into wood or paper, building up layers of pencil marks and strokes of paint is a chance to experience, inhabit, and reflect on a work in progress. There is a tension between the spontaneous and intuitive markings of a sketch and the patient construction of a final image, layer by layer. But throughout these processes, the combination of improvisation and iterative play allow one to recover a sense of childlike joy, wonder, and curiosity, practices so necessary to rediscovering the true connections that bind us to one another and the natural world, and knowing our true selves.