With nature imagery as a visual framework, Annalise Neil’s cyanotype and watercolor work considers ideas such as perception, the unknown, quantum theory, and ecology. Metaphors that come from researching these scientific and philosophical tenets are woven into her pieces. The concepts and the images they lead to can be used to help interpret living as one species amongst wildly complex, interconnected social and natural environments. All properties of all things are relational, and life is only possible through a collaborative symphony—nothing exists independently. Every living thing is a complex, multidimensional universe that interacts with others to form a prismatic web of energy. Neil endeavors to create work that will lead to contemplation and reflection, and that invites a thoughtful examination of our relationship to reality and our surroundings.

She constructs cyanotypes on paper or fabric using a library of hundreds of individual, hand-cut negatives of her photographs grouped into categories such as mushrooms, birds and plants. Once the composition is made on the light-sensitive substrate, it is placed in the sun and then rinsed in water--a process that turns the work a glorious blue. After completing the photographic stage of the work, Neil uses watercolor paint to sharpen its formal qualities and to weave in narrative elements.

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