ecoart
pigments + projects + practices
responding to climate uncertainty, land-use changes + biodiversity loss with sensual research, ecological materials, reciprocal foraging, other-than-human practices + socially-engaged ecoart
Pigment Researcher
pigments have led me to
origins of colour +
diverse pigment practices +
pigment communities +
relational approaches +
ecological artist
my practice is sensual, collaborative + place-based
islands of curatorial responses reviews reflections
from the recent collaborative exhibition Wind’s Damp Song for the Soil and Other Contemplations on Ecological Justice (2024-25) to Greenw**sh (2011), I generate spaces to reflect on ecological worldviews, ecomaterial research, and climate responses in diverse settings
teaching + mentorship
oak trees are the oldest trees where i live, as they somehow survived extreme acidification from mass nickel smelting pollution that transformed boreal into moonscape…
now, 50 years into a project to regreen the land, these oak galls, made through the metamorphosis, can be found in abundance in the greenspace just steps from my backdoor…
oak gall ink is one of the oldest forms of natural permanent ink…its magic!…while gathering, making ink, and seeing its hues darken and transform on paper…I am being mentored about resilience…
biogenic ochre is ever present in nearby streams and pond habitats…where acidic waters leach iron from the rocks; here, small microbes, “iron scavengers,” eat the iron and excrete ochre…
i learned about this process from the ochre whisperer, Heidi Gustafson, author of Book of Earth.
“When I see primordial iron brew seeping out of a ditch, spring, or sidewalk, I feel like falling to my knees, as if in the presence of the greatest gods. Maybe that sounds ridiculous, but why not? Aren’t I witnessing a four-billion-year-old lineage of life creation in front of my eyes? No story, no propaganda, just pure unadulterated nature - our very oldest ancestor still right here and here and here, pumping out iron and oxygen, without which life as we know it would cease to exist.”
processes
daily practices, meanderings, social + eco calls