Water Spiral (2012).
Hand cut
paper,
acrylic ink
& Mylar
dots.
(detail)
Form of
the Papio
(2008). size
variable.
Hand cut
paper components.
A: Once a work is complete it belongs to the
viewer who often gives me wonderful feedback
about what I’ve just created.
As an artist based in the middle of the U.S. I
chose to examine ecological problems in my local creek system for an installation at the Museum of Nebraska Art. After that I collaborated
with a Connecticut colleague to create a large
installation based on groundwater in northeastern Nebraska. Marian Maas, PhD, who founded
the Papillion Creek Watershed Project and
Susan Lackey, a hydro-geologist with University of Nebraska, were tremendously helpful to
me each time. I was able to go into the field to
observe wells being tested and look under the
microscope at soil samples. The groundwater
show in particular engaged a variety of professionals. Farmers walked through an interactive,
human scale, precipitation chart from the last
SciArt in America August 2013
40 years in Nebraska and told me how it correlated to their largest corn harvests. Scientists
who worked with the area’s Nebraska Resource
District marveled that we visually expressed the
properties of groundwater. They never expected
an art installation to translate and elevate their
own work.
Q: Do you have any upcoming projects you’d
like to share a bit about?
A: In September I will be on the Wampa River
in Hayden, Colorado for a “land/water” residency sponsored by the Colorado Art Ranch
and The Nature Conservancy. The Wampa one
of the last free flowing rivers in the country. I’ve
been reading about the history and ecology of
the area in order to make decisions about projects I might tackle.
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