The different elements of Berg’s latest works require very different construction processes. To create the molded concrete pieces she plans in reverse, beginning with a vision of the end product and how it will be exhibited. She determines whether the piece needs a flat base, hanging mechanism, or any other component well before she begins the process of mixing cement. Her drawings and prints require a similar carefulness of planning, and rely on the artist’s skilled manipulation of different tools. Berg employs chisels, Japanese knives and gouges, and ball bearing and Murasaki barens to print large and small areas on varying weights of paper. Everything is done by hand. She relishes the physical nature of carving the wood or linoleum for a print, and the messiness of building and filling her cement molds.

Berg’s color palette is primarily inspired by the high-desert of New Mexico and the natural, untouched state of the materials she uses. Grey cement, glistening black graphite, and opaque white plaster compliment the peachy pinks, rusty browns, and various shades of black found in the New Mexican earth. Though the shapes and colors in this series are inspired by the buttes and mesas of the desert, Berg also draws a connection to the peoples who inhabit this landscape and her own presence within it. The rich, warm hues also reflect skin tones, and of the cracks, sags, dimples, and craters that inhabit both the landscape and her work, Berg notes, “we are all subject to the same forces as Mother Earth.”