Journal
Writing from the art.
How to Work With Me
From Art in Action to one-on-one Mentorship, opportunities for organizations and individuals, there’s a wide variety of ways you can work with me to meet your goals.
How My Very First Large-Scale Collaborative Art Project Changed Our Government
When I give presentations and workshops about how collaborative art can create change in local government, I often tell stories about The Plastic Whale Project and how it influenced our community in its decision to ban single-use plastic bags.
Adventures in Ferrocement, Featuring the Pollinator Project
One of the wonderful aspects of the Pollinator Project was learning a new art medium, ferrocement. Ferrocement is essentially concrete mortar over a metal armature. Using a metal armature and mesh makes the concrete much stronger, allowing shapes and forms that would be impossible with concrete alone.
The Pollinator Extravaganza!
Over the summer, we celebrated the unveiling of an art sculpture and pollinator garden. At the event, there were local beekeepers, a live observation hive, honey vendors, education stations, a pollinator photographer, musicians and even a juggler! It was so much fun that we are thinking of making it an annual day-long education and family fun event.
One Water: The Infinite Journey
This spring, I partnered with LOTT Clean Water Alliance to create an engaging and educational art piece about water for the WET Science Center. I teamed up with LOTT and more than 1,200 Thurston County students and adults to create the new piece titled “One Water – The Infinite Journey” that debuted as part of Spring Arts Walk on April 22 at LOTT’s WET Science Center. The result of this project is not just an art installation; it is a story of water.
Project Wetlands
Located in the wetlands exhibit area at Northwest Trek Wildlife Park, this installation creates the illusion of being inside of a wetland while interpreting the important function of wetlands and the necessity to limit the use of plastic bottles. Visitors are immersed in this beautiful and solution-based piece in a setting where they can view and connect to the animals that are affected by this issue. The experience leaves them more open to taking tangible action to conserve wetlands and reduce their use of plastic bottles.
Puget Sound Multi-Porpoise Project
As part of my Artist Residency at Sherman Elementary School, in Tacoma, we created this Student Collaborative Art Project. During the project, students created hundreds of shimmering Pacific herring from up-cycled Capri-sun pouches. The school of herring is suspended in the shape of two harbor porpoises. Stabilized by student created clay shells that are native to the region, this artwork looks closely at the relationship of plastics and how we impact the earth.
The Unseen Spiral
This Leatherback Sea Turtle was commissioned by the Oregon Country Fair (OCF), summer 2015. It was a collaboration between myself, Annie Douglas, and many amazing volunteers! The intention of the piece was to shed light on some of the problem materials at OCF. The shell of the turtle is made from Asceptic containers (soy milk and the like), other upcycled materials, and bamboo. Inside the turtle is a…