About Amelia
Amelia was raised on a farm in Buckingham, Virginia, where she developed a fondness for gardening and drawing nature and local wildlife. She decided she wanted to become a professional artist when she was twelve, when her parents, teachers, and other adults in her life started to take notice of her work. Although she enjoys experimenting with new tools and techniques, her body of work is unified by her delicate touch. Pieces such as Abandoned Catharpin, Frisbee Creek, and Spring display her consistent use of precise mark-making and elaborate detail. In recent years, she has also expanded her artistic practice to include a variety of textiles, such as bobbin lace, crochet, knitting, weaving, and embroidery. As a passionate environmentalist, she hopes to influence her viewers to care for and respect native species and to appreciate the beauty and power of local landscapes. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from George Mason University in 2026 and plans to become an author and illustrator of children’s literature.
Artist Statement
My work is fueled by a deep fascination with history and origins: origins of processes, origins of physical goods, and origins of social ideas and traditions. I search out the women of my ancestry through materials and techniques they would have used as well as the locations and spaces they inhabited. My use of textiles, through spinning, weaving, lacemaking, and more connect me directly to the practices of my grandmothers and their mothers’ mothers through millennia. I seek to understand their relationships with the earth: soil to grass, grass to sheep, wool to yarn, yarn to protection from the wind and rain. My work pushes the unconscious boundaries many people have drawn in their minds between textiles and “artwork.” To refer to clothing, blankets, and household goods as “art” based on the time, skill, craftsmanship, and aesthetic attention put into them is a way of honoring the women of my past. From the Flemish laces of my Dutch voorouders, to the braided rag rugs of my American foremothers, every stitch I make is symbol of respect for the paths they paved.
I have a deep affection for the America of the past, a United States of promise, potential, and exploration. I see those ideas beaten deep within the grain of derelict homes and barns, fences rotting under tangles of honeysuckle, and scraps of human identities that have since walked away. Especially in rural Virginia, forgotten farms scatter the countryside and invite fantasies of past lives and potential futures. Many of my pieces highlight the abandoned; the stories they tell and the mysteries they raise. I ponder the belief systems that were abandoned with those homes as well as the nostalgia they raise in many who view them in the modern day. I’ve explored these landscapes through watercolors, graphite, charcoal, colored pencil, and linoleum printmaking. I believe that the media used should fit the subject, not the other way around.
Having been raised on a small farm in central Virginia, my exposure to local flora and fauna has deeply impacted the work that I’ve made. I seek to learn the influence of plants and animals on the lifestyles of Virginians throughout history. My ultimate goal is to honor the strength and beauty of those organisms in my artwork. Botanical motifs manage to sprout up in the vast majority of my pieces, whether they be painted portraits or elaborately crocheted blankets. There is very deliberate intention behind each plant or animal represented- their habits, needs, and traditional uses are considered. My work-in-progress children’s book, Admirable Animals, aims to highlight the beings that share our home and the lessons we can learn from them. My illustrations are inspired by the work of Beatrix Potter and Tasha Tudor, classics in the field. I hope for my writing and illustrations to honor the plants and animals that have supported me and my family for generations, especially those that are native to my home in the beautiful and diverse state of Virginia.