Long Live the Weeds and the Wilderness by Kristen Abbott

32.75 x 26.75 x 2.5 in

Cyanotype and mixed media on wood panel, sewn silk textiles double framed in maple float frame

This piece is titled after an excerpt from a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins:

"What would the world be, once bereft

Of wet and wildness? Let them be left,

O let them be left, wildness and wet;

Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet."

This stanza is written on the back of the piece along with the title.

Kristen Abbott (b. 1990, Little Rock, Arkansas) is a mixed media painter and textile artist based in Boulder, Colorado. Her practice moves between abstract painting and cyanotype textiles, shaped through an experimental, process-driven approach.

In her cyanotype work, sunlight acts as both collaborator and catalyst, imprinting organic forms onto hand-coated fabrics such as linen, cotton, and silk. Abbott often reworks these surfaces with additional materials, building layered compositions that shift with the viewer’s perspective and gradually reveal new details over time.

Guided by a philosophy of “joyful experimentation,” her work embraces unpredictability and reflects an intuitive dialogue with place, light, and material—inviting viewers into quiet moments of reflection and discovery.