There’s nothing quite like the effect you achieve with silkscreening. The ink gives my images a richness, strength and depth of color—no matter how delicate that image might be—along with a surface quality like soft velveteen.

Even before creating my first sketch, I put a great deal of thought and planning into a piece. Once I’ve sketched out an idea, that sketch guides the flow of color and composition that brings a piece to life.

I’m often asked how I actually transfer my images onto the screens. It is a photographic process that uses a light-sensitive emulsion. My photographs, often combined with my hand-drawn images, are exposed to an emulsion-coated screen on a light table—anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes. After that, I take the exposed screen into my washout booth where a new image is revealed and becomes ready for printing.

Now the printing process begins. My prints are often mistaken for paintings because I build up a rich and complex surface by layering many colors on top of one another, much like a painter would.

One of the things I find most intriguing and rewarding about silkscreening is the mystery that is revealed after I’ve pulled the ink and lift the screen to see what’s there.

The term “silkscreen” usually connotes broad, flat areas of color. However, I may have thirty, fifty, even seventy layers on a large and complex piece, which gives the print extended texture and depth.

I only use water-based inks, both transparent and opaque, and hand-mix all of my colors. The metallic inks I use add a shimmer that causes a translucent effect, which I find well suited to my subject matter. I enjoy creating large silkscreens—a typical piece, for example, might measure 32 inches by 44 inches. I feel working in the large sizes is essential for the statements I want to make about the environment.

Silkscreening is technical and time intensive. I need a lot of patience for the process to flow and develop, but the end result – every color mixed, every color pulled, and all the hours spent creating the final piece – is grounded in a passion for my native environment.

I feel as if the layers and complexity of my silkscreen mirror the layers and complexity of the prairie that surrounds me.