Artist Statement

My practice begins with drawing as a durational, embodied activity shaped through close observation and iterative mark-making. Images do not appear all at once. They surface gradually through sustained intrigue, as attentive looking and curiosity begin to draw forms forward. Over time the work itself begins to suggest how it should proceed.

Many drawings begin from encounters in my immediate surroundings: a tree outside my studio window, a fragment from a historic botanical illustration, or unusual artifacts encountered in insect collections and natural history museums. These sources are not reproduced directly. Instead they enter the work obliquely, reappearing across multiple drawing sessions in altered or unexpected ways. Through repetition, memory, and intuitive decisions, images shift as the drawings develop.

My drawing process is a way of working slowly enough for things to disclose themselves. Drawing becomes a method of testing what an image might contain, allowing small signals, associations, and perceptual echoes to surface and redirect the work as it unfolds.

The drawings often extend into sculptural and spatial arrangements that shape how images are encountered. In relation to the classificatory traditions of botanical illustration and natural history collections, the work gathers fragments, traces, and observations into a counter-archive where images remain provisional rather than fixed.

Biography

Angela Henderson is an artist and designer based in Kjipuktuk (Halifax, Nova Scotia). Working with drawing, sculpture, and installation, her practice explores intuition, memory, and the interconnectedness of dreams and ecology. She has exhibited internationally and across Canada and teaches at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.