“Artistically Babcock is compelled by paper’s ability to carry context and content through the very materials that form it. This time-tested technology encourages people to slow down and use holistic techniques to transform materials usually deemed waste or scraps into new, positive work.”
— Aimee Lee, “Young Papermakers Today: Three Profiles”, Hand Papermaking
“Displayed in the voluminous hall on the lower level of the Rhode Island State House, the artwork serves as a sort of root system, elucidating the complex relationships between our daily operations and our environment. The space features niches which lend themselves elegantly to sculptural installations...and its main wide wall serves as an evocative ground for Babcock and Singleton’s monumental map.”
— Elizabeth Maynard, Art New England, "ReSeeding the City: A Multivenue Exhibition in Providence"
“In our runaway consumptive culture, her approach is a crucial model. What fibers she uses for hand papermaking exemplify a sense of responsibility towards the land. We can all take instruction and inspiration from May Babcock’s humane collaborative approach.”
— Amanda Degener, Hand Papermaking Newsletter
“Whether sculpting lacy three-dimensional bas-relief landscapes from sediment-rich cotton rag or bookbinding tales of environmental stewardship upon vibrant, soil-hued pages, Babcock wields these natural materials in a masterful contemporary fusion of artistic disciplines. Her work adeptly melds the traditions of book arts, printmaking, craft, sculpture, and installation into a distinctly ecocentric practice.”
— Jay Dupont, Motif magazine
“Babcock harvests non-native plants from Rhode Island’s eddies and tide pools, pulping them into hand-made paper, or arranging them into painterly gelatinous forms. Her re-contextualization draws out the subtle patterns and delicate hues of oft-maligned flora.”
— Micah Salkind, Providence City Hall Gallery
“May’s knowledge about the history of papermaking, from its roots as a 2,000 year old handcraft to industrial papermaking and the emergence of papermaking as an artistic discipline in the 1970s provided rich opportunities for discussion and local connections to the history of papermaking in the region.”
— Kate Griffin, Executive Director, Arts Alliance of Northern New Hampshire
“With its red seaweed pulp used to paint the watershed map of “Great Salt Cove Macroalgae,” May’s work is a hauntingly beautiful reminder that the festival footprint was once brackish water.”
— Gina Rodriguez, Providence Department of Art Culture + Tourism
