Encoded Messages is a quilt composed of panels of natural latex sewn together by hand, each cast directly from the bark of living trees in California landscapes shaped by prolonged drought and intensifying heat. Every casting begins as an act of care rather than extraction. The tree is gently painted with liquid latex, observed, and left intact. As the latex dries, it records the textures, wounds, and scars of the bark, becoming a material witness to environmental stress that often goes unnoticed in everyday life.

In nature, latex is a substance trees produce to seal wounds and protect themselves. Here, it carries that biological association into the work, shifting from a means of protection into a record of encounter. As the material ages, it slowly changes color, hardens, and begins to break down, echoing the temporal fragility of the trees whose surfaces it records. The quilt holds these changes openly, allowing degradation to remain visible rather than concealed.

Quilting brings the work into the domestic sphere, drawing upon a form historically associated with collective labor, repair, and care. By joining individual castings into a single surface, Encoded Messages reflects how environmental responsibility accumulates through many small and repeated gestures. Rather than proposing restoration or resolution, the quilt asks what it might mean to remain attentive to a living world already under strain.

Situated between artwork and ecological record, Encoded Messages invites us to remain in relationship with the places we inhabit, to notice signs of stress before collapse, and to understand care as an ongoing and embodied practice.