Heather Carlson
Nature Panels
Santa Fe New Mexico

I grew up on my family's ranch near the southern border of New Mexico. Impressions of my childhood are rich with images of the desert...ocotillo cactus with its strange silhouette and red blooms and swarms of gold june beetles appearing after the rains.

I've since settled in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The juniper trees and aspen groves of the high desert contrast with the landscape of my childhood, but the new surroundings feed my inspiration just as strongly. It's here in Santa Fe that my business, the Sundrop Lamp Co., was born in 2005. My Nature Panel series came several years later with my desire to expand to wall art. I've found that the change in canvas from the aspen trunks used to make my lamps to wood panels has inspired a new collection of designs that have the bold simple lines and rich colors that typify Japanese prints.

To create each panel and lamp, I loosely sketch the designs in pencil before burning strong and deliberate lines. Using acrylics I paint the images with a combination of opaque layers as well as washes that allow the woodgrain to show through. A varnish protects the artwork and gives the piece a rich satin varnish.

To make the lampshades I stretch Thai, Japanese and Nepalese papers over a heat resistant styrene. A grosgrain ribbon trim finishes each shade.

As contemporary pieces, my lamps and nature panels share the current focus on nature and the environment. They become sacred objects for the home, and in my highest aspirations, they encourage reverence of the natural world.