FOG Design+Art 2025: Stacy Lynn Waddell: Edibles

Rebecca Camacho Presents features a solo presentation of new works on paper by North Carolina-based artist Stacy Lynn Waddell.  

Through a slow and reflective studio practice, Waddell considers the authorship and idealism of art historical narratives and how they correspond to the economic and political structures of their time. Source images are transformed by a variety of processes, including burning paper using laser technology, embossing and debossing, physical distressing, and gilding. Waddell’s use of 22k gold leaf addresses the material’s associations with value and trade, and the role of the gold standard in establishing modern banking and the distribution of wealth. 

In Edibles, Stacy Lynn Waddell depicts a sampling of the strange, toxic, and delicious florals consumed for human nourishment, healing, and pleasure at different moments across time. This new body of work is constructed with handmade paper and pastiglia, a technique developed during the Renaissance in Italy to create low relief decoration. Employing this historical craft, Waddell conjures natural history specimens over thousands of years and fossilizes them in 22-karat gold. While the resulting works are honorific, they also illustrate the harsh realities and losses of continued global warming.