Interview for OVAC during Tulsa Studio Tours - Fall 2017
Where are you originally from and how did you come to be a practicing artist in Tulsa?
I was born and raised in central Oklahoma, but moved to Minneapolis, MN for undergrad. I spent 17 years in Minneapolis until returning to Oklahoma, in January of 2017, to join the Tulsa Artist Fellowship.
Tell us a little bit about your work and the processes you utilize.
In 2011, I began using my art practice to think about ecological systems and interconnectivity, or the loss thereof. The work grew out of volunteerism, working at an animal rehab facility, then for Audubon, then for several years at the Raptor Center. Photography plays heavily into work production, but the work is currently evolving as I think about pattern making and home making, the agency of objects, and the impact of consumer goods and marketing on our daily lives. So, my practice has expanded to include: digital drawing, fabric production and sewn pieces, manipulated found objects, abstract sculpture, graphic design, and written text.
Are there any people in your life or in the greater art world that have played a role in your work?
I still hold a conversation I had, in 2008, with my friend, John Darling, highly responsible for my initial motivation to volunteer. He was telling me about the seabirds that were being found dead with their stomachs full of plastic. This motivated me to look for ways to help wildlife, at a local level, impacted by human presence and this was what ultimately led to my first volunteer gig. In grad school both eco and sustainability artist Christine Baeumler and photographer Paul Shambroom were influential in their feedback on Impact and DIY Animal Populator. Within the broader art world I find artists like Mark Dion, Amy Stein, Natalie Jereminjenko, and Koert van Mensvoort inspiring.
What are some challenges you have faced and how did you overcome them?
With each new project, each new experimentation there comes an anxiety of whether or not it is good or interesting or worthwhile and there is a desire to retreat to what is known and comfortable, but I've given myself permission to fail. And with each failure I learn something new and find another way to move forward that I would not have found otherwise. Acknowledging that failure is part of the process gives me permission to explore and keeps me excited and engaged with the work. You just have to keep showing up and be flexible enough to let go of something when it isn't working. This is the ongoing challenge.
What is the weirdest thing in your studio and what is its purpose?
Other than some animal bones I don't really have anything too strange in the studio.
Is there any advice you'd like to give to someone who is aspiring to follow in your footsteps?
Be prepared to both compromise and remain resolute. Acknowledge that things don't happen overnight, but keep showing up. Find people to talk to that are curious, that ask questions.
What books have been important for your practice? What are you currently reading?
Flight Ways: Life and Loss at the Edge of Extinction is great for thinking about language and how it shapes our behavior, as well as challenging the perception of non-human animals as beings without narratives.
Rambunctious Gardens explores the importance of finding nature everywhere and not exoticizing it.
Feral points to examples of our unknown interconnection and interdependence within ecosystems.
Your Brain on Nature provides studies of the importance green space has on mental health, impulsivity, and empathy in our everyday lives.
Currently on the nightstand: Braiding Sweetgrass, The Biophilia Hypothesis, Coyote America, Gorgeous Beasts, and The Ecological Thought.
Where are you originally from and how did you come to be a practicing artist in Tulsa?
I was born and raised in central Oklahoma, but moved to Minneapolis, MN for undergrad. I spent 17 years in Minneapolis until returning to Oklahoma, in January of 2017, to join the Tulsa Artist Fellowship.
Tell us a little bit about your work and the processes you utilize.
In 2011, I began using my art practice to think about ecological systems and interconnectivity, or the loss thereof. The work grew out of volunteerism, working at an animal rehab facility, then for Audubon, then for several years at the Raptor Center. Photography plays heavily into work production, but the work is currently evolving as I think about pattern making and home making, the agency of objects, and the impact of consumer goods and marketing on our daily lives. So, my practice has expanded to include: digital drawing, fabric production and sewn pieces, manipulated found objects, abstract sculpture, graphic design, and written text.
Are there any people in your life or in the greater art world that have played a role in your work?
I still hold a conversation I had, in 2008, with my friend, John Darling, highly responsible for my initial motivation to volunteer. He was telling me about the seabirds that were being found dead with their stomachs full of plastic. This motivated me to look for ways to help wildlife, at a local level, impacted by human presence and this was what ultimately led to my first volunteer gig. In grad school both eco and sustainability artist Christine Baeumler and photographer Paul Shambroom were influential in their feedback on Impact and DIY Animal Populator. Within the broader art world I find artists like Mark Dion, Amy Stein, Natalie Jereminjenko, and Koert van Mensvoort inspiring.
What are some challenges you have faced and how did you overcome them?
With each new project, each new experimentation there comes an anxiety of whether or not it is good or interesting or worthwhile and there is a desire to retreat to what is known and comfortable, but I've given myself permission to fail. And with each failure I learn something new and find another way to move forward that I would not have found otherwise. Acknowledging that failure is part of the process gives me permission to explore and keeps me excited and engaged with the work. You just have to keep showing up and be flexible enough to let go of something when it isn't working. This is the ongoing challenge.
What is the weirdest thing in your studio and what is its purpose?
Other than some animal bones I don't really have anything too strange in the studio.
Is there any advice you'd like to give to someone who is aspiring to follow in your footsteps?
Be prepared to both compromise and remain resolute. Acknowledge that things don't happen overnight, but keep showing up. Find people to talk to that are curious, that ask questions.
What books have been important for your practice? What are you currently reading?
Flight Ways: Life and Loss at the Edge of Extinction is great for thinking about language and how it shapes our behavior, as well as challenging the perception of non-human animals as beings without narratives.
Rambunctious Gardens explores the importance of finding nature everywhere and not exoticizing it.
Feral points to examples of our unknown interconnection and interdependence within ecosystems.
Your Brain on Nature provides studies of the importance green space has on mental health, impulsivity, and empathy in our everyday lives.
Currently on the nightstand: Braiding Sweetgrass, The Biophilia Hypothesis, Coyote America, Gorgeous Beasts, and The Ecological Thought.