Grain Shift is a sculptural artist’s book that explores growth shaped by disruption. The covers are formed from a Manitoba Maple burl, an irregular growth that develops when a tree is injured or under stress. Rather than returning to its original grain, the tree grows around the site of damage, producing dense, swirling patterns and craggy surfaces that hold a record of that event.

The interior pages are made from handmade paper, formed individually using a template within the mould and deckle to respond to the natural architecture of the burl. They are dyed with arbutus bark peel, tea, and logwood, producing a range of earthy tones that deepen the connection between material and source.

I am drawn to the way a tree does not return to a former state but reorganizes itself through what has occurred, a kind of grain shift that becomes visible over time. This work reflects on experiences of grief and trauma and the ways they interrupt and reshape us. Like the tree, we do not return unchanged, we form around what has happened. What emerges may be unfamiliar, even difficult, but it can also hold an unexpected beauty.

The work can also be reconfigured in space and holds multiple orientations that shift how it is read and encountered. In this way, form remains active rather than fixed.

Grain Shift considers how material and process can embody this transformation, how something marked by disruption can become a site of complexity, resilience, and quiet strength.