Artistic Alchemy - Transformation Through Creative Praxis by kimberly gonzalez

artistic alchemy transformation through creative praxis

Kimberly Capron Gonzalez Thesis Portfolio MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts Advisor: Ruth Wallen Second Reader: Deanna Bowen Goddard College, May 2020

embroidered fragment from the poem, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Sea-Riseâ&#x20AC;? by John Englander. 2019

poem “Art and Alchemy” by Ray Lucero, embroidery and beadwork on cotton jersey. 2020

TABLE OF CONTENTS 09—Abstract and Keywords 11—Acknowledgments 13—Artist Statement 15—Introduction 18—Revolution Womxn Style Now! Zine 41—Textile Panels and Garments 55—Natural Dyes 59—Shown for Scale 67—Capstone Project: Elixir Crankie 73—Alchemical Reverie 81—Commencement 82—Annotated Bibliography 86—Bibliography

Process + Praxis. embroidery on cotton jersey. 2019

ABSTRACT & KEY WORDS Artistic Alchemy - Transformation Through Creative Praxis is my culminating MFAIA portfolio. It is a collection of my writing, process, and projects during my study at Goddard College. This selection of interdisciplinary projects presents my inquiries into the areas of intersectional feminism, sustainability, and environmentalism â&#x20AC;&#x201D; as expressed through my art practice which includes textiles, zines, painting, photography, and performance. Woven throughout this portfolio is writing, poetry, photography, and embroidered journal fragments, which add to the atmosphere of my work and provide a glimpse of my creative process. In addition to the projects gathered here, I also document and reflect on my practicum and capstone project, a crankie performance called Elixir. The ideas that I investigated on my quest for the ending to my crankie performance changed my perspective and created a new location for my ecoart practice; I talk about this shift in my personal essay, Alchemical Reverie.

Key Words: enchantment, feminism, environmentalism, climate change, zines, textile art, sustainability, crankie, DIY, eco-art, riot grrrl, sea-level, alchemy

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transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,

including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system without the written permission of the author.

Artwork, photography, and book design by Kimberly Capron Gonzalez watercolor on paper. 2019

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am beyond grateful for the privilege of this transformative experience. I have grown in this program more than I ever imagined and my heart is full of joy and possibility. I am super thankful to everyone who has taught, encouraged, supported, put-up-with, fed, helped, and listened to me on this adventure.

I offer deep gratitude ... ~ To my lovely husband Juan who put up with art projects literally everywhere in the house, did way more than his share of the dishes, and collaborated on the crankie performance and box building. I love you so, so, so much. ~ To my family and especially my Mom, who encouraged me and supported me, as she has always done throughout my life. I love you. Thank you for everything. Bink, I love you too. ~ To all of my wonderful advisors at Goddard, without whom, I could not have grown into the person and artist that I am. Erica Eaton, Cynthia Ross, and Gale Jackson all gave me exactly what I needed, exactly when I needed it. It was an honor for me to work with you all. A special extra thanks to Ruth Wallen, who was so incredibly generous. I couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have made this portfolio without you! I am so grateful for your guidance. ~ To all my fellow Goddard cohorts that make Goddard such a magical, special community. In remembrance of Bastet Gonzalez. Thank you for choosing me as your friend and companion for all those years. I miss you and will always love you.

cherimoya1. reclaimed tee shirt jersey, acrylic & thread. 2019

ARTIST STATEMENT Artistic Alchemy - Transformation Through Creative Praxis is a presentation of my work and process during my study at Goddard College. It is a gathering of my thoughts, explorations, writing, and art, as I explored new directions for my creative practice and evolved my artistic identity. This book documents my inquiries into intersectional feminism, sustainability, and environmentalism — as expressed through my work in several mediums, which include textiles, zines, painting, self-portraits, and performance. My journey through the MFAIA program started with the creation of a zine about intersectional feminism. Then, wanting to experiment with new forms, I felt drawn to the world of textiles. As I explored sewing, embroidery, and natural dyes, I examined the sinister side of textile production from both social justice and environmental standpoints. I then used this new medium to create several embroidered panels as meditations on sea-level rise. Further exploring this topic, I turned the camera on myself to document the project Shown for Scale. In doing my practicum project, Elixir, I discovered the magic of visual storytelling through the use of a crankie — something that I’m excited to explore more in the future by performing this story to new audiences and creating new stories and scrolls. Finally, in the essay Alchemical Reverie, I talk about important perspective shifts that changed the way I approach my work in the sphere of eco-art. In the creation of my crankie performance, I found new expressions for my art practice, including painting, printmaking, and visual storytelling. I would like to explore these mediums to unearth more internal landscapes as I look to the future; my interest in making work that addresses environmental and social justice issues has not faded, but I have added a more personal, experimental facet to my studio work. This book reveals transformations in my perspectives and methods; it is a collection of work that has been created by study, distillation, and practice, charting my growth into the artist that I am today.

printed text on chiffon and thread. 2018

INTRODUCTION I grew up in the swampy heat of South Florida, catching lizards and tadpoles, swimming, and collecting shells along the Atlantic coast. I loved bugs and butterflies as a small child and always wanted to bring them home. I’ve been interested in nature all of my life; my Father was a huge influence, he loved the ecology of South Florida and was an active preservationist. He cared deeply for green spaces and, as a city commissioner, was very successful in carving out several parks and preserving the natural habitats of our unique flora and fauna. He worked closely with Dr. Gordon Gilbert to create the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center — a place I haunted on weekends. Behind the center was a wooden boardwalk trail through skunky smelling mangroves, and we envisioned ourselves setting out on expeditions through uncharted and dangerous wetlands as my friends and I followed the trails.

Since that first zine, my art and activism have held hands throughout my life. While attending the University of Miami, I found third-wave feminism and the Riot Grrrl movement — which had started in the Pacific Northwest and spread across the country through feminist zines and raw, girl-powered punk rock. Submerged in that subculture, I started making zines in earnest, found DIY ethics, and learned to screenprint and upcycle discarded things. After graduation from the School of Communications at UM, I took baby steps as a working artist in the world of photography. I would photograph bands, headshots -- just about anything for very little money. I saved lots of money by developing the tmax black and white film in a seldom used darkroom on Lincoln Road on Miami Beach. Mainly a photographer at that time, I chose to capture my colorful group of friends, the denizens of Miami Beach, and the alternative music scene happening at Churchill’s Hideaway — our CBGB — a filthy music venue in Little Haiti.

My family would take beach walks on muggy nights to look for laying sea turtles, and after the eggs hatched, we would watch as the baby turtles made their perilous journey to the sea. When my father passed away, much too young, from cancer, Boca Raton honored him with a memorial that looks out to the Atlantic and surveys the nesting sands of his beloved Loggerheads.

From the late 90s forward, I worked as a graphic designer and, as a side-gig, produced tee shirts, stickers, and other media to protest the war in Iraq or promote solar power in Florida — a state that despite its moniker of “The Sunshine State” produces almost no renewable energy. My artistic motivations continued to turn, ever more, towards political, environmental, and social justice issues. When Trump was elected, my energy towards protest art was briefly stoked, but as time passed it turned into exhaustion. My activism had been reduced to metaphorically yelling into the void, and my creative purpose felt broken by an unrelenting news cycle of discord. My art practice was chaotic. Random projects, unconsidered, filled my time, but with no cohesion.

In high school, my best friend Vanessa and I started a student environmental coalition, literally named S.E.C. for the “Student Environmental Coalition,” and produced a zine about the danger of nuclear power and, randomly, dolphins. In retrospect, I believe this may have been as a result of tuna fishing practices that had recently come to light. The whole process of making that little zine, from drawing the illustrations to the satisfaction of seeing all the stapled copies neatly stacked was magical to me, for books are something I have always deeply loved. The feeling of being able to make a book, with no one’s permission, would be something, a practice, that I would return to again and again, throughout my life. We only made one zine because the S.E.C. disbanded after our debut publication, I still have it buried in a dusty box in the shed.

me and my mom. printed text on chiffon, hand-stenciled floral pattern, embroidery. created for The Motherline Quilt by Sarah Valeria. 2019

In this state of uncertainty, I decided to pursue my MFAIA at Goddard College in February of 2018. My intention was to create a cogent body of work that was more than the random projects that had become my art practice. In my study plan, I wrote:

INTRODUCTION

I would like to explore and connect deeper themes and interests that drive my work. I want to create a cogent body of work that is more than the disparate projects that have been my art practice. I have so many ideas and am never at a loss for inspiration, but these projects lack insight, inquiry, and discipline to go deeper and become something of value to myself and others.

In these last few semesters at Goddard, my art practice has become more introspective. Through meditation, writing, and painting, I am locating a new place of making from the simple joy of self-expression. Lately, I have been spending time in my studio with my watercolors, mixing and learning about each pigment. It’s like making a new friend with every new addition to my palette. My desire to create projects that address ecological and social injustices has not diminished, but I have added a dimension of interior exploration to my practice. I also would like to further explore painting and printmaking in the context of visual storytelling and performance by creating more crankie performances… perhaps in collaboration with a musician or poet. Two of the main projects in this book, Shown for Scale and Elixir, are continuing beyond my time in this MFA program; I have written about where I see those projects going in their respective sections.

Entering the program, my interests included DIY culture, zine-making, environmental activism, feminism, and the development of my artistic identity — and those subjects did guide most of my study throughout this program. Thinking now about my experience as a whole, I not only developed work in those areas but spontaneously explored other ideas and techniques that have added a new dimension to my work. This portfolio charts my evolution through study, process, and making — culminating in my capstone project, a crankie, Elixir. This capstone project grew out of my practicum and ended up profoundly changing my view of the kind of eco-art that I want to make. I talk about this shift in my essay, Alchemical Reverie.

I came to Goddard to weave the disparate threads of my art practice into something with more form and purpose, and I have done that. But more than that, my art practice has been transformed into something much more whole. I’ve learned how to excavate for my own truths, and then express them with writing and art. At the same time, I have found a wonderful, supportive community that has brought me out of my shell and encouraged me to try new modes of practice that I would have never imagined for myself. Welcome to my book of Artistic Alchemy…the thoughts and processes that have changed my art practice, and myself, into something more magical.

The title of my portfolio, Artistic Alchemy - Transformation Through Creative Praxis, reflects the changes, in both ideas and approaches, that I have experienced during my studies at Goddard College. One of the meanings of alchemy is that it changes or transforms something at a base level, and that’s how I feel about the work in this portfolio. I feel that I have created a cogent body of work, that weaves together my ideas, methods, studies, and style. Alchemy is magical distillation — and I see it as a metaphor for my course of study. As I expanded my knowledge and distilled my truths, and mixed them with some praxis, I created a transformation of my work at base level.

me, playing with butterflies, five years old.

Revolution Womxn Style Now! I came to find the Riot Grrrl movement through zines and the punk rock subculture of the early 90s. I was instantly fascinated with zines. Before the internet, and way before social media, this was one of the only ways to connect to others in whatever alternative niche you found yourself in. Even now, in an age of hyper-connectedness, zines are still a powerful voice of expression (1). I find a feeling of permanence and a tactile joy in creating an artifact that can be discovered for years to come, long after the online conversation has joined the graveyard of digital jetsam.

culture. Suparak said that queerness was a huge part of what inspired this show. (5) But, what I saw in those old zines and art, was mostly all cis, hetro, abled, middle-class, white representation. In my mind, I had remembered these zines as being really cool; now I was viewing them as uninclusive and privileged. A quick Internet search revealed that this was, indeed, the consensus.(6) I decided to write a perzine(7) about how to become a more intersectional feminist. To start this project, I researched a wide range of voices, outside my place of privilege, in regard to feminist theory and intersectionality. Some of the authors I read were: bell hooks (8), Roxane Gay (9), Kimberlé Crenshaw(10), and Brittney Cooper (11). In addition to published books, I did an extensive crawl through as many articles, blogs, and websites as I could find, that would help me to be a better ally. I distilled all this information into a “How To” narrative — an imagined zine, created for myself twenty years ago. The audience for this zine was myself, but I thought that the tone could resonate with other young women who may be only viewing feminism through a privileged and problematic lens.

Riot Grrrls were “an underground, decentralized movement made up of mostly young female punk musicians who worked to channel a fierce feminist politic through mediums of DIY cultural production, such as music, zines, performance, and visual art.” (2) I was attracted to their message of “girls to the front” and their aggressive push-back against rape, abuse, and sexual harassment. Riot Grrrl resides in the third wave of feminism, (3) which emerged in the mid-1990s. As a coming-of-age, Generation X, fledgling feminist, I felt empowered and included in their message. I still love most of the music; I have many playlists which include Bikini Kill, Heavens to Betsy, Sleater-Kinney, Le Tigre, and Bratmobile — all Riot Grrrl bands from back in the day.

The new change in spelling of the word ‘womxn’ is done in an effort to emphasize the idea that womxn are their own separate people, capable of operating on their own and without a man to aid them. The new spelling is also seen as intersectional, as it is meant to include transgender womxn, womxn of color, womxn from third world countries, and every other self-identifying womxn out there. (13) After the zine was complete, I created a linocut block and a stencil of the cover typography so I could make some stickers and tee shirts for the zine fair. I’m proud of this zine and I still distribute it. What started for me as a nostalgic review of a movement, became a personal, introspective journey questioning where I stand as a feminist today in regards to intersectionality and how to keep listening and learning as I go forward.

My process tends to be relatively the same for all the zines I’ve made. Once the writing is done, I feel that I can lose myself in the process of the cut and paste… something I love. The copy is digitally formatted and printed, and then I treat every page as its own unique design, using both found and created images for the visuals.

I have been making a zine for the Miami Zine Fair since it began in 2015. For my 2018 project, I chose to check-in on my once loved Riot Grrrl movement because I had noticed some of these bands getting back together to tour again. I started by reading The Riot Grrrl Collection (4) which is an extensive compilation of zines, poetry, and visual art from the 90s. As I browsed through all these zines that were the foundation of the riot grrrl movement 20+ years ago, I was astonished at how exclusive they were. There was always some queer representation. The traveling exhibition, “Alien She,” curated by Astria Suparak and Ceci Moss, highlighted the lasting impact of Riot Grrrl on today’s art and

For the cover art, I created some hand lettering with the title, “Revolution Womxn Style Now!” This phrase is a take on the title of Bikini Kill’s first demo cassette released in 1991 — Revolution Girl Style Now! “Drummer Tobi Vail describes the slogan as “a call for all girls to start bands, start ‘zines and participate in the making of independent culture.” (12) Because my zine is about post Riot Grrrl intersectionality, I changed “girl” to “womxn.”

1. Wortham, Jenna. “Why the Internet Didn’t Kill Zines.” The New York Times, 28 Feb. 2017. NYTimes.com,https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/28/magazine/why-the-internetdidnt-kill-zines.html. 2. Siegfried, Kate. Affective Cultural Practice: Imagining Queer Feminism in the Riot Grrrl Movement. p. 100. 3. “Feminism - The Third Wave of Feminism.” Encyclopedia Britannica. www.britannica.com, https://www.britannica.com/topic/feminism. 4. Darms, Lisa, and Johanna Fateman. The Riot Grrrl Collection. Feminist Press. 5. “Alien She Chronicles the Queer Women Who Were Part of Riot Grrrl.” AfterEllen, 25 Feb. 2015. www.afterellen.com,https://www.afterellen.com/people/417027-alienchronicles-queer-women-part-riot-grrrl. 6. Politics of the Scene: Inclusion in the Riot Grrrl Movement | No, Thanks. https://rampages.us/cnmontgomery/portfolio/politics-of-the-scene-inclusion-in-the-riot-grrrlmovement/. 7. What Does PERZINE Mean? www.definitions.net, https://www.definitions.net/definition/PERZINE. 8. hooks, bell. Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center. South End Press, 2000. 9. Gay, Roxane. Bad Feminist: Essays. Harper Perennial, 2017. 10. Kimberlé Crenshaw on Intersectionality, More than Two Decades Later. www.law.columbia.edu, https://www.law.columbia.edu/news/archive/kimberle-crenshawintersectionality-more-two-decades-later. 11. Cooper, Brittney. Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower. St. Martin’s Press, 2018. 12. “Revolution Girl Style, 20 Years Later.” NPR.Org. www.npr.org, https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2011/09/20/140640502/revolution-girl-style-20-years-later. 13. “Why I Choose to Identify As a Womxn.” Her Campus. www.hercampus.com, https://www.hercampus.com/school/washington/why-i-choose-identify-womxn.

Revolution Womxn Style Now! Zine. 2018 hand-printed denim patch, linocut, recycled denim, fabric, ink. 2018

setting up shop at the Miami Zine Fair. 2019

Are My Hands Clean? I wear garments touched by hands from all over the world

On the way to the Burlington Mills in South Carolina

35% cotton, 65% polyester

To meet the cotton from the blood-soaked fields of El Salvador

The journey begins in Central America

In South Carolina

In the cotton fields of El Salvador

Burlington factories hum with the business

In a province soaked in blood

Of weaving oil and cotton into miles of fabric for Sears

Pesticide-sprayed workers toil in a broiling sun

Who takes its bounty back into the Caribbean Sea

Pulling cotton for $2.00 a day

Headed for Haiti this time

Then we move on up to another rung

May she be one day soon free

Cargill

Far from the Port au Prince palace

A top-40 trading conglomerate

Third-world women toil doing piece-work

Takes the cotton through the Panama Canal

To Searsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; specifications for $3.00 a day

Up the Eastern Seaboard

My sisters make my blouse

Cominâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to the US of A for the first time It leaves the third world for the last time In South Carolina at the Burlington Mills

Coming back into the sea to be sealed in plastic for me

Joins a shipment of polyester filament Courtesy of the New Jersey petrochemical mills of duPont

This third-world sister

duPont strands of filament begins In the South American country of Venezuela

And I go to the Sears department store

Where oil riggers bring up oil from the earth for $6.00 a day.

Where I buy my blouse On sale for 20% discount

Then Exxon The largest oil company in the world

Are my hands clean?

Upgrades the product in the country of Trinidad & Tobago Then back into the Caribbean and Atlantic seas

~ Sweet Honey and the Rock

To the factories of duPont

Textiles: Garments & Panels The first time I had the desire to work with fabric was in the mid-1990s. At that time, I was a web designer and gazed at a computer screen for hours on end while teaching myself this amazing new technology. Perhaps I needed to make something with my hands after spending so much time with data? After shoddily attempting to make a few things, my inspiration lagged, and I put aside my needle and thread for a long time.

the sewing machine is no longer a whirring fixture in the home. Especially since the rise of fast-fashion chains, a tear in a shirt or dress often spells its end.” (8) I think it’s important to re-learn and pass down the simple bits of wisdom that have been taken from us — or more accurately that we have surrendered — by commodification. Wendy Jehanara Tremayne writes, “In my pursuit of a decommodified life, I came to believe that when all of life is for sale, it is a revolutionary act to become a maker of things.” (9)

Then, in 2018, I found the work of Natalie Chanin through a short video (1) and became obsessed with her method of making for several reasons . Chanin’s idea of using discarded tee shirt fabric was the catalyst for my interest in her work. It spoke to me about anti-consumerism, sustainability, and the ability to make something unique and beautiful from used fabrics that were destined for landfill. Recycling clothing ties into my values in so many ways.

Lastly, the meditative, repetitive motion of hand-sewing soothes me. I love the quiet nature of the work. The symbolism of a needle binding has meaning for me as well, as I sew poems, journal fragments, or wishes, I imagine the thread creating an embroidered spell. Upcycling textiles isn’t a new idea. African-American quilt-makers never let a single scrap of fabric go to waste; reading about the Quilts of Gees Bend, I was fascinated by their gorgeous designs of playful geometry. (10) I am drawn to the work of Crispina ffrench, a life-long environmentalist that has been working with fabric waste for over twenty years, who creates felted blankets from old wool and cashmere sweaters.

By making things from used materials we can avoid participating in sweatshop labor practices, pollution, resource exploitation, and the carbon footprint of shipping goods made halfway around the world. (2) As a nation, the U.S. now buys about twenty billion garments a year. (3) Fashion has become an “instant gratification” business. We don’t value the craftsmanship and style of our garments; they are purchased to wear a few times and then dumped. Twenty one billion pounds of postconsumer textile waste goes into landfills in the U.S. per year (4)

As I was learning how to do this technique of reverse applique (11), I was simultaneously researching the history of needlework as it relates to both feminism and the modern concept of craftivism. In The Subversive Stitch: Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine, Rozsika Parker talks about the transformation of needlework from “women’s work” to artwork. (12) I looked at the work of Faith Ringgold, Judy Chicago, Louise Bourgeois, and Tracey Emin — all so diverse in their approach to taking back needle and thread.

There are grave social implications that result from our need for fast fashion. According to unicef, about 260 million children are employed in child labor. (5) A recent report by the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO), and the India Committee of the Netherlands (ICN) revealed that recruiters in southern India convince parents in impoverished rural areas to send their daughters to spinning mills with promises of a well-paid job, comfortable accommodation, three nutritious meals a day and opportunities for training and schooling, as well as a lump sum payment at the end of three years. Their field research shows that “in reality, they are working under appalling conditions that amount to modern day slavery and the worst forms of child labour”. (6)

The term ‘craftivism’ was originally coined by writer and maker Betsy Greer in 2003. Greer provides a very broad definition for the term, writing that craftivism is ‘…a way of looking at life where voicing opinions through creativity makes your voice stronger, your compassion deeper & your quest for justice more infinite.’ (13) This movement quietly grew through social media and several grassroots community groups like “Stitch and Bitch,” where people come to learn skills and talk about their concerns. The two skirts that I created in this series illustrate the idea that by creating my own clothes from discarded cotton, I am quietly protesting the fast-fashion model of hyper-consumerism and sweatshop labor. I want to take back the knowledge and ability to create clothing for myself. This idea of quiet protest intrigued me and I started to think about sewing textiles about sea-level rise from a place of witnessing.

These terrible working conditions were in the press for a while after the horrific 2013 Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh, where over 1,100 people were buried and crushed. But only a few years after this incident, demand for fast fashion has erased this tragedy from consumer consciousness. (7)

Tropical. reclaimed tee shirt jersey, acrylic paint, thread. 2019

Another aspect of DIY ethics that I find important is the learning and keeping of traditional skills. For many people here in the U.S., a hole in a garment means throwing it in the trash. “Home economics is no longer taught in many schools;

textiles: garments

panels

As that vision started to come together, I started looking for text fragments that I could weave into this story about the water rising. The John Englander poem, “Sea-Rise” (14) felt perfect for this piece. I embroidered several fragments from this poem to incorporate into my panel and then printed some text on semi-transparent chiffon to experiment with. Adding these pieces to my panel helps to tell the narrative of sea-level rise, and gave the piece more of a story. I came to call this panel Anthropocene. This panel was a part of the Goddard Faculty and Student Art Show in Spring Semester, 2019. As I was finishing my study and creating this portfolio, I chose to embroider some fragments of journal entries and poetry. These are scattered through this book, threads of thought and words that have special meaning for me.

cherimoya2. reclaimed tee shirt jersey, acrylic, thread. 2019

1. Meet Natalie “Alabama” Chanin I Creativebug. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Gh5vEEoDxk. 2. “Why Do We Need a Fashion Revolution?” Fashion Revolution. www.fashionrevolution.org, https://www.fashionrevolution.org/why-do-we-need-a-fashion-revolution/. 3. Cline, Elizabeth. Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion. Portfolio/Penguin, 2013. 4. US EPA, OLEM. “Textiles: Material-Specific Data.” US EPA, 12 Sept. 2017. www.epa.gov, https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/textilesmaterial-specific-data. 5. Child Labour in the Fashion Supply Chain. https://labs.theguardian.com/unicef-child-labour/. 6. Ibid. 7. Why Won’t We Learn from the Survivors of the Rana Plaza Disaster? - The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/24/style/survivors-of-rana-plaza-disaster.html. 8. Now Is When We All Learn to Darn Our Socks Again - The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/12/style/visible-mending.html. 9. Tremayne, Wendy Jehanara. The Good Life Lab Radical Experiments in Hands-on Living. Storey Publications, 2013. 10. Rubin, Susan Goldman. The Quilts of Gee’s Bend. Abrams Books, 2017. 11. Chanin, Natalie. The Geometry of Hand-Sewing: A Romance in Stitches and Embroidery from Alabama Chanin and the School of Making. Abrams, 2017. 12. Rozsika, Parker. The Subversive Stitch: Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine. I.B. Tauris, 2014. 13. Greer, Betsy. Craftivism: The Art of Craft and Activism. Arsenal Pulp Press, 2014. 14. “Sea-Rise, a Poem.” John Englander - Sea Level Rise Expert, 1 May 2015. johnenglander.net, https://johnenglander.net/sea-rise-a-poem/.

magdalena skirt. recycled tee shirts, screen print ink, needle, thread. 2018

tropical skirt. recycled tee shirts, screen print ink, needle, thread. 2020

textile panels, recycled tee shirts, screen print ink, needle, thread. 2018

“sea-rise” panels. recycled tee shirts, screen print ink, needle, thread. 2018

Textiles: Natural Dyes One of the most enticing aspects of the sheer amounts of used white tee shirts in thrift shops is just that, they are a blank canvas awaiting any color that I wish them to be. When I started sewing these garments and panels, I realized that if I looked for extra-large white tee shirts, each one would yield lots of material. However, during my research on the environmental impacts of the textile industry, I became increasingly wary of synthetic dyes. Most synthetic dyes are very toxic. In her book, Eco Color, India Flint writes:

With these thoughts in mind, I decided that my textile projects would use as much natural, botanical, and non-toxic dye as possible. The first natural dyes I chose to experiment with came easily from my kitchen. Tea and turmeric are renowned for their staining power, and as someone who enjoys both tea and turmeric, they were in easy reach. After dying with simple kitchen ingredients, I moved on to indigo, a dye with a rich history and color as well. There are several hand-dyed indigo pieces in this portfolio. I feel that Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve only scratched the surface of this beautiful, nature-basedcolor-world and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m excited to learn more recipes and techniques going forward.

During a brief journey to India in 2006, I visited the Pochampally. Here the use of natural dyes to color yarn for Ikat weaving is gradually being reintroduced -- for the simple reason that groundwater has been completely poisoned by synthetic dye residue residues seeping through the soil, and people realized too late that these substances made them sick. Water for drinking must now be trucked in from Hyderabad (about 2 hours away by road) and it is unlikely the well water will become safe to drink again. Unfortunately, some villagers are still persisting with synthetic dyes to get such colors as turquoise, using toxic mixes without masks or gloves, their hands permanently stained brilliant blue. Waste was still being disposed of by pouring them into the ground. The next vital step in the project will be to ensure that all the adjunct mordants used to fix the natural dyes are also of low environmental impact. The salts of chrome, tin, copper, and iron are not only potentially injuries to the health of dye makers, they also present serious ecological difficulties in terms of safe post-dying disposal. For the individual, disposing of metallic salt wastes remaining after domestic or small-scale workshop dying poses a problem, requiring evaporation pits to reduce the residue to a manageable sludge, thus minimizing the volume of material for disposal. Unfortunately, the question of safe disposal of this toxic sludge is not one that has yet been resolved satisfactorily, nor can it possibly be safe to wear cloth that has been soaked in a substance such as potassium dichromate (it is a known carcinogen). (Flint, 25)

1. Flint, India. Eco Colour: Botanical Dyes for Beautiful Textiles. Interweave, 2008.

dyeing with turmeric. 2018

Sea-Rise In Greenland, Antarctica, and beyond

We have awakened the sleeping polar giants

the ice is melting into rivers

a sea change has just begun

giant glaciers gradually soften

this is a new epoch

gravity guides them surely to sea

welcome to the anthropocene

Inexorable, unstoppable

It is a revolutionary reality

we are impotent to halt the rivers of ice

the sea is rising. slowly now

two hundred thousand in number

she is giving us time to adapt

mostly beyond our sight and mind

if we dare look at the future

Unseen but in control of our coastal world

King tides make it clear

frozen waters are changing form

waters will go from feet to chin

our ocean planet is reminding us of our place

we will emerge or be submerged

our connection to the sea

now is the time for us to rise

Steady shores lured us, invited us to build bigger and bigger as if we were in command. silly us

ÂŠ 2015 John Englander Permission granted to share or post, without modification

anthropocene. tee shirt jersey, embroidery. 2018

SHOWN FOR SCALE The effect of sea-level rise on my home in South Florida has been heartbreakingly clear to me for years. I was one of the selected individuals to attend a training workshop with The Climate Reality Project back in 2015. (1) This week-long training included lots of slides with flooding and extreme weather, strategies for presenting climate slide decks and information, and a speech/lunch type function with Al Gore. This training was specifically done in Miami, as we are one of the areas in the United States that stand to lose the most from flooding and severe weather. (2) Unfortunately, no one ever asked me to come and present to their school, business, or church, even after five years of being listed as one of the Miami contact persons on the Climate Reality website. As I was researching recent climate data for my Anthropocene panel, I was alarmed to find new data suggesting that Miami could see, using a moderate projection, our sea-level rise by about four feet by 2050. (4) It was startling to really consider that measurement. I started thinking that, as a person of shorter stature (5’1”), this level of sea-rise would actually be most of my height. This inspired me to make a dress that would show the projected level of sea-level rise, using my body for scale. By wearing the dress next to favorite and familiar places in Miami, I would be producing a living visual scale of projected flood lines. I chose 2050 as an imagined “end of life” year for me. If I am still here, I will be 82 years old. I begin with some research where, on the dress, the waterline would actually be, based on several climate models. (5) I also thought about the materials, design, and construction of the dress. One of the biggest decisions was what to have on the fabric part of the dress that isn’t “underwater.” I decided to produce several stencils of tropical flowers and leaves in order to create my own pattern; I wanted the top of the dress to use all of my favorite Florida flora colors of pink, orange, and green. I struggled with whether or not to include text on the dress and finally decided to make two — one with and one without. The one with the text would be more of a conversation starter that I could wear to invite dialogue; I actually did wear this one to the Miami Climate March in 2019. The one, without text, would be used in self-portraits, where I could provide context to the work. Dresses complete, I started to take some test pictures so that I could work on my pose, expression, hand placement, and such. Only then did I realize that selfportraiture, being such a big part of this project, was something that I hadn’t really considered. I knew that I had to wear the dress because this was about witnessing my truth. My advisor, Ruth Wallen, agreed and really helped me to think about the pictures, and what the poses could convey. It took a lot of pictures and a lot of experiments to come to a pose and expression that I was satisfied with. The selfportrait aspect of this project surprised me with how uncomfortable I was as the subject of a photograph meant for more than a casual snapshot. I was confronted Shown for Scale dresses. 2019,2020

SHOWN FOR SCALE

with images of my “growing-older” self that triggered feelings about my body and a more mature face that I didn’t plan on thinking about. In that squirmy place, in front of the lens, may lie an area of self-exploration in the future. I see this project as a work in progress. I’m not totally content with the dress or the photographs, but I think this is a powerful idea for me to explore in the future. I can also see this as a performance and a way to interact with my community by wearing this dress as a statement and conversation starter. Several times, as I was wearing the dress with the text, people stopped to comment or ask whether the water could ever be that high. I had to tell them, yes, it will.

1. “Floridians No Longer Have Luxury to Pretend Climate Change Isn’t Real | Fred Grimm.” Sun-Sentinel.Com. www.sun-sentinel.com, https://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/ commentary/fl-op-com-grimm-climate-change-real-20191101-4bbjs4srwzdlxnnhxftfeo62um-story.html. 2. “Climate Reality.” The Climate Reality Project. www.climaterealityproject.org, https://www.climaterealityproject.org. 3. Keellings, David, and José J. Hernández Ayala. “Extreme Rainfall Associated With Hurricane Maria Over Puerto Rico and Its Connections to Climate Variability and Change.” Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 46, no. 5, Mar. 2019, pp. 2964–73. DOI.org (Crossref), doi:10.1029/2019GL082077. 4. Climate Central: A Science & News Organization. www.climatecentral.org, https://www.climatecentral.org/. 5. This analysis uses median local sea level projections based on the NOAA Technical Report NOS CO-OPS 083 (2017), intended for the 2018 U.S. National Climate Assessment. (www.climatecentral.org)

Biscayne Bay with Miami in the background

a banyon tree by the coral gables library

pink snail left over from art basel

the entrance to vizcaya

coconut grove by the old planetarium

the spot that i met my husband

yves st. laurent in the design district

lo mejor de calle ocho, calle ocho

alhambra entrance to coral gables

The Elixir Crankie: Capstone Project & Practicum Reflection I had seen Insurrection Mass with Funeral March for a Rotten Idea, performed at Goddard College, by Bread and Puppet Theater, and I was smitten. During the same residency, I participated in a cantastoria workshop by Erin Galligan-Baldwin. These experiences inspired me deeply and I jumped at the chance to explore this type of performance more by developing my practicum proposal around a cantastoria, including all the various components that would be necessary to bring this project to fruition. The main intention for my practicum was to explore new paths of practice. My creative projects had been focused on textiles, printmaking, and zines, so I viewed my practicum as a way for me to really push myself in unfamiliar directions.

Now that I had a basic outline of the story beginning, I worked with my G3 advisor, Ruth Wallen, to mold it into something more closely fitting my message. The idea for the store came to be a good starting idea, but I rewrote the story completely to fit my message. This process was the catalyst for my personal essay, Alchemical Reverie, and, as the title infers, drastically changed my thinking in regards to my eco-art. During this period of story writing, I did some experimentation with materials and sizes for the cantastoria panels. I tested some ideas for panels using my original Persephone ideas. At this point, I was just trying to figure out how large the panels should be, how I would paint them, and how I could hold them. I wasn’t pleased with the turning of the panels. I wanted the story to be more fluid. I also wanted to be able to perform the piece alone and flipping these giant panels wasn’t very elegant storytelling.

In harmony with my main areas of study, I decided that for my practicum, I would write, create, organize, and perform a cantastoria to foster hope in the face of climate change. My intention was to create a positive, funny, entertaining performance that would be a new way to foster dialogue about climate change. I would be exploring cantastoria performance and all the aspects that go into it, from painting to performance creation.

My research on cantastoria led me to an archive of crankie performances, “Cranks Unearthed” (2) which happened on June 29th, 2018 at Artyard in Frenchtown, New Jersey. I knew right away that this was exactly the kind of performance I wanted to do because I feel like it puts the art in the front, in a soft, flowing way. I switched my idea from a traditional panel-type cantastoria to a “crankie” — a word coined by Peter Schumann of Bread and Puppet Theater. (3) I was fascinated by the literal visual storytelling of this medium.

I started my research by looking at myth, storytelling, and cantastoria history. I considered, at first, a modern retelling of the Persephone myth, with the world plunged into forever Summer instead of Winter, but it didn’t feel right. I wanted the story to take place in the more ambiguous world of Fairytale, instead of using Greek or Norse mythologies. Floundering with the writing, I thought I would see if I could find someone to collaborate with on the story. My research led me to an article by Kate Marvel, a respected climate scientist. Her fairy tale, “Slaying the Climate Dragon”, was published on the Scientific American blog October 11, 2018. (1) The idea was exactly what I was looking for — although some of the details and the ending would need to be changed in order to fit my vision and research. I contacted Marvel and asked if I could use her story for my cantastoria and she agreed.

crankie box and Elixir scroll. 2020

In the past I have created most of my images digitally, which would not work for this project. The only way, I felt, to do a project of this scale was to paint directly on the scroll. I researched some ideas for the graphics and created preliminary sketches. Unsatisfied with my initial art, I started a daily drawing practice to train my eye and hand — something that has stayed with me beyond this project.

elixir crankie

When I started painting directly on the large scroll, I found that I needed to create a much smaller story-scroll in order to work out the transitions between the scenes and to see how the whole story would flow. I also realized that creating a small demo crankie would let me test the prototype for the crankie box that I was designing with Juan Gonzalez, my collaboration partner and lovely husband. The design for the crankie box was a complete failure and we knew we would have to completely redesign it for the scroll to advance in a smooth way.

As I reflect on my experience with this project, my learning can be grouped in two main areas: creative practice and environmental activism. In order to produce and document the crankie, I needed to learn creative writing, painting, and visual storytelling. It was the writing that I felt most daunting, and I definitely struggled with that process. I am, very much, a visual artist and my storytelling happen through those mediums much more naturally. So, of course, it’s not surprising that I found a deep love of painting because of this practicum. I had always thought I lacked the aptitude for this kind of image-making, but being forced to put those doubts aside has yielded a fresh new path for my work going forward. I have, indeed, found several new paths for my art practice. Drawing and painting have become an important medium for my studio work going forward. I loved making the crankie and am excited to do more of them!

I used the remainder of my G3 semester to create the small demo and work on possible endings of the story. I created a video of the small crankie, now called Elixir to show at Fall residency in July 2019. The feedback about the ending to my story was very important. I proposed several ending ideas to my group, and, from this residency, came back ready to finish this story. I realized that the size that I had initially decided on was too large, so I switched to a slightly smaller scroll, and using the demo that I had created, I started to paint.

I feel that the solution for many of our environmental problems begins with understanding our connection with nature. If we fail to fix that, we will continue to exchange one set of problems for the next. This has been an important epiphany for me. You can’t just tell people to stop using plastic or cutting down trees, they have to love the Earth as they love themselves. I reflect on these ideas in the following essay, Alchemical Reverie. We must see ourselves as part of the interconnected biosphere of this planet — not some organism that sits above or apart from it. As we hurt the natural world, so do we hurt ourselves.

Finishing the story, painting the scroll, and building the crankie box all took me much, much longer than I had imagined. Although the crankie box seemed to be a pretty straight-forward design, sadly, it was not at all. By the time everything was ready to perform, everyone was on house lock down because of the Covid-19 virus. The first performances were scheduled online, to friends, family, and my Goddard community. I would like to see if I can perform this crankie in a few festivals when the “social distancing” mandate has passed. I also have plans to turn the story and images into a zine for the 2021 Miami Zine Fair; I can perform the crankie at that event as well.

1. Cranks Unearthed (June 29th, 2018) | ArtYard. https://artyard.org/project/cranks-unearthed/. 2. “IPC Talk - 10-1-17 - Www.Thecrankiefactory.Com.” SimpleSite.Com. www.thecrankiefactory.com, http://www.thecrankiefactory.com/115034637. 3. Marvel, Kate. “Slaying the Climate Dragon.” Scientific American Blog Network. blogs.scientificamerican.com, https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/hot-planet/slaying-theclimate-dragon/.

Elixir Crankie Performance Page: http://cherimoyatree.com/dragon-crankie

A l c h e m i c a l R e ve r i e i pressed play on the book, The Uninhabitable Earth, by David Wallace-Wells, and started my drive to school. It was a teaching day for me, and I have about an hour’s drive through the middle of Miami to get to school. As the author started reading, it felt like I was hearing the plot of a dystopian disaster film: no food, unlivable landscapes, vast species loss (both plant and animal), disease, and despair filled the world. By the time I had reached my destination, my chest was tight, I felt a sick knot in the pit of my stomach, and an unflappable feeling of sadness. I couldn’t listen to the rest of the book. It hit me that hard.

As an artist heavily influenced by punk and DIY culture, subtlety was never my style. I had always felt that I needed to literally smack someone in the face with the social, political, or environmental message in whatever creative “protest” project I was making. This was probably what had led me down the path of researching the most devastating parts of climate change — the feeling that if I could just jolt my audience with these visions, they would obviously wake up and want to do something about it. But, as I’ve pointed out, this strategy wasn’t actually working for me, so how could I think that it would work on my audience.

This wasn’t new information to me at all. I had been doing research on sealevel rise, for about a year, as I worked on a piece called Shown for Scale. This piece involves various dresses, painted to show where the waterline will likely be in South Florida circa 2050. As I wear a dress, and interact with my community or create self-portraits around the city, a visual marker is created to show the scale of the impending flood water — my relatively short five-foot-tall body being the actual, visual scale. In order to understand where this water level might be, I had been deep diving into possible flood scenarios on the Surging Seas: Riskfinder (1) website. This fascinating, and scary, tool was created by Climate Central (2) to provide an interactive map with several scenarios (slow, medium, and fast water rise) that show where flooding could occur depending on your location. During this same time, I was painting a crankie (3) about climate change for my practicum project, and I needed a good ending to my story. I had been introduced to the ancient song/story form at Goddard College and was delighted by it.

Reading climate articles was really depressing. I don’t think the goal of these writers was to cause someone to have a paralyzing anxiety attack but, instead, to persuade readers that this is a real problem that Americans need to tackle immediately. They are journalists, it is their job to report climate change and what that might look like in the very short future. Here are a few of the articles that I have saved from this period of research: • • •

“It’s over”: Miami Beach tries to outrace climate change’s rising seas by David Knowles (4) “Even Under Best-Case Scenario, Sea-Level Rise Will Leave Miami Looking Like Florida Keys” by Kyle Munzeneieder (4) “Goodbye Miami” by Jeff Goodell (6)

The Goodbye Miami piece is a perfect example of the kind of article that I’m talking about. Here is the opening paragraph: When the water receded after Hurricane Milo of 2030, there was a foot of sand covering the famous bow-tie floor in the lobby of the Fontainebleau hotel in Miami Beach. A dead manatee floated in the pool where Elvis had once swum. Most of the damage occurred not from the hurricane’s 175-mph winds, but from the 24-foot storm surge that overwhelmed the low-lying city. In South Beach, the old art-decobuildings were swept off

My thinking, at the time, was that I really needed to illustrate the danger of climate change, and my audience would see these realities, and somehow come away from the performance dedicated to climate activism. In retrospect, it was a pretty high standard, but I am also by nature a pretty big optimist, so that’s why these negative feelings troubled me so much.

1. “See Your Local Sea Level and Coastal Flood Risk.” Climate Central. riskfinder.climatecentral.org, http://riskfinder.climatecentral.org. 2. Climate Central: A Science & News Organization. www.climatecentral.org, https://www.climatecentral.org/. 3. “What Is a Crankie.” The Last Crankie...a Play by P.H. Lin, 18 Apr. 2019. www.thelastcrankie.com, https://www.thelastcrankie.com/what-is-a-crankie/. 4. “It’s over”: Miami Beach Tries to Outrace Climate Change’s Rising Seas. https://news.yahoo.com/its-over-miami-beach-tries-to-outrace-climate-change-and-the-risingseas-160000886.html?soc_src=hl-viewer&soc_trk=fb&fbclid=IwAR39BeG3fOd7NmAH2XUoyqTLrR_idGYPFy76ilHuTmIWQnojqzsp_bbLFE8. 5. Even Under Best-Case Scenario, Sea-Level Rise Will Leave Miami Looking Like Florida Keys | Miami New Times. https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/even-under-best-casescenario-sea-level-rise-will-leave-miami-looking-like-florida-keys-7974881. 6. Miami: How Rising Sea Levels Continue to Endanger South Florida - Rolling Stone. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/miami-how-rising-sea-levels-endangersouth-florida-200956/.

their foundations. Mansions on Star Island were flooded up to their cutglass doorknobs. A 17-mile stretch of Highway A1A that ran along the famous beaches up to Fort Lauderdale disappeared into the Atlantic. (7) I remember urging my friends, family, and students to read some of these pieces (none are climate deniers) but they all seemed to shrink away from any discussion about climate change. My worst revelation was that, at this point, I found myself wanting to turn it off as well. Although I wanted to keep researching, I began to dread every article and video because of how bleak most of it was. This is why my family doesn’t want to talk about this, I thought, This is why my friends ignore this research, because it is truly terrifying. There are several ideas about why people turn away from this subject. In an article from Time Magazine, “Why Your Brain Can’t Process Climate Change,” Bryan Walsh (8) considers that the human brain is only really concerned about current, direct threats to itself. Art Markman explains this idea further in his piece for the Harvard Business Review, where he says, “Decades of work on temporal discounting point out that we overvalue benefits in the short term relative to benefits in the long term.” (9) Andrew J. Hoffman looks at the climate change debate as being more about differences in culture than in psychology at this point. The central idea of his book, How Culture Shapes the Climate Change Debate is that, “...climate change is no longer about carbon dioxide and climate models. It is about values, culture, world views and ideology.” (10)

a must-have in Miami, I started reading Active Hope by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone. (11) This text had me nodding in agreement while offering me some much needed comfort as well. The authors describe “Active Hope” as a practice, like Tai Chi or gardening — it is something that you do to keep grounded and refresh your energy. Based on Macy’s, “The Work that Reconnects,” this practice does not require faux optimism; you can use the tools in this book even if you feel hopeless. (Macy 37) These ideas offer resilience, empowerment, and healing to those weary from the work of change (or just the evening news). This was the first time that I had read details about an idea called, “The Great Turning.” This term was first used by Craig Schindler and Gary Lapid to frame the idea of their work on their 1985 “Project Victory,” which was aimed at the reduction of nuclear war risk.(13) When Schindler and Lapid published The Great Turning: Personal Peace – Global Victory in 1989, they had an endorsement from Joanna Macy, who expanded and deepened this concept. Macy has used this term in many of her writings, lectures, and workshops to describe three phases of our collective passage as humanity from a “doomed economy of industrial growth to a life-sustaining society committed to the recovery of our world.” (12) The three phases are not ordered, but are happening all at once, they are more dimensions than stages. The First Dimension: Holding Actions: Holding Actions aim to hold back and slow down the damage being caused by the political economy of Business as Usual. They include steps we take to raise awareness of the damage being done, as well as campaigns, petitions, boycotts, rallies, legal proceedings, direct actions and other forms of protest against practices that threaten our world.

So, what would be the ending to my climate change fairytale? The point of my crankie was not to prove climate change exists, but to inspire more people to tackle the issue. I wanted it to have a positive, “let’s go forth and change the paradigm” kind of energy. What could I tell my audience that they didn’t know? How could I provide an upbeat ending to my story instead of pedantic proselytizing on emissions or carbon-footprints? Maybe the ideas in the Hoffman book (values, culture, world views) were a good start?

The Second Dimension: Life-Sustaining Systems and Practices: When we support and participate in these emerging strands of a lifesustaining culture, we become part of the Great Turning. Through our choices about how to travel, where to shop, what to buy and how to save, we shape the development of this new economy.

I started looking for sources of information beyond the “climate science spectrum” and found some other voices that described our ecological situation in a more philosophical way that made so much sense to me. These ideas changed my perspective about what I wanted to say with my work. This essay looks at these general ideas, and the influence they’ve had on my thoughts, process and art.

The Third Dimension: Shift in Consciousness: This dimension of the Great Turning arises from shifts taking place in our hearts, our minds, and our views of reality. It involves insights and practices that resonate with venerable spiritual traditions, while in alignment with revolutionary new understandings from science. (Macy 28-31)

On a scorching Summer day, cooling off in my backyard kiddie pool,

7. Miami: How Rising Sea Levels Continue to Endanger South Florida - Rolling Stone. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/miami-how-rising-sea-levels-endangersouth-florida-200956/. 8. Why Your Brain Can’t Process Climate Change | Time. https://time.com/5651393/why-your-brain-cant-process-climate-change/. 9. Markman, Art. “Why People Aren’t Motivated to Address Climate Change.” Harvard Business Review, Oct. 2018. hbr.org, https://hbr.org/2018/10/why-people-arent-motivated-toaddress-climate-change. 10. How Culture Shapes the Climate Change Debate (SSIR). ssir.org, https://ssir.org/books/excerpts/entry/how_culture_shapes_the_climate_change_debate. 11. Macy, Joanna, and Chris Johnstone. Active Hope How to Face the Mess We’re in without Going Crazy. New World Library, 2012. 12. David. “Origin of the Term.” David Korten. davidkorten.org, https://davidkorten.org/home/great-turning/origin-of-the-term/.

I found dimensions one and two to be spaces that I had been occupying for years, but the third dimension grabbed my attention because I hadn’t thought about it in relation to art at all. As I unpacked this idea, I realized that most of my creative projects were intent on showing people the damage that, for example, plastics cause in the ocean or climate change will do, or species loss will have, which is in the first dimension. I realized that I have been very aware of the second dimension as well; I actively support products or companies that, as much as I can tell, value ecological sustainability. But I never thought about the third dimension, the heart and mind shift, and what that might look like. It makes sense, though, that unless that paradigm shifts, we will never really solve our environmental issues because there will always be a new problem to address. Instead of addressing each thing as if it were totally separate, don’t dump plastic in the ocean...those pesticides are very harmful...we should really care about the bees, we should just address our relationship to the planet. I realized that, instead of trying to find a pragmatic ending to my crankie about climate change, the ending should be about a shift in consciousness. The phrase “spiritual ecology” refers to an emerging field that intersects spirituality, conservation, and academia in regards to ecological issues. Despite the disparate arenas of study and practice, the principles of spiritual ecology are simple: In order to resolve such environmental issues as depletion of species, global warming, and over-consumption, humanity must examine and reassess our underlying attitudes and beliefs about the earth, and our spiritual responsibilities toward the planet. (13) The essays in Spiritual Ecology: The Cry Of the Earth (14) greatly expanded on this concept. This book gathers writings from some of the most important voices in Ecology, Buddhism, Sufism, Christianity, physics, psychology, and Native American beliefs together to look at humanity’s relationship with their Mother Earth.

and what will die. Since we, humans, are also born and will die we are nature too. Thus nature and humans are one. Therefore we need to understand that what we need to do to nature we do to ourselves. We are all related; we live in an interdependent world. (Vaughan-Lee 18) I believe this change of perspective is powerful. Joanna Macy calls this shift, “The Greening of the Self,” where the conventional notion of the self is replaced by a wider construct of identity and self-interest (Vaughan-Lee 151). She writes about a conversation with John Seed, the director of The Rainforest Information Center in Australia, in which she asked him how he was able to cope with the despair that comes from trying to save remaining rainforests. I try to remember that it’s not me, John Seed, trying to protect the rainforest. Rather, I am a part of the rainforest protecting itself. I am that part of the rainforest recently emerged into human thinking. (Vaughan-Lee 153) I like that this takes the concept of “what we do to nature, we do to ourselves” into a more spiritual space. By “spiritual,” I am talking about the incorporeal as opposed to the material nature of something. (15) What I mean is, that it’s not a very far jump to see that if we ruin our sources of water, then we also hurt ourselves because we need water. But this is a much more profound shift in thinking when we understand that we are the water. Going further, the essay “Imagining Earth” by Geneen Marie Haugen transports the reader to an ensouled world that is alive in every way. In this world, everything is animate, and there is no dead matter; the hills, rocks, trees, soil, animals, rivers… everything in nature contains the soul of the Earth, Anima Mundi. Haugen describes a “practice of animacy,” where she greets and then offers gifts to a living, natural world. She says, If we approached rivers, mountains, dragonflies, redwoods and reptiles as if all are alive, intelligent, suffused with soul, imagination and purpose, what might the world become? Who would we become if we participated intentionally with such an animate Earth? Would the world quicken with life if we taught our children – and ourselves! – to sing and celebrate the stories embedded in the body of Earth, in the granite bones of mountains and rainy sky tears, in trembling volcanic bellies and green scented hills? What if we apprehended that by nourishing the land and creatures with generous praise and gratitude, with our remembrance or tears, we rejuvenate our own relationship with the wild Earth, and possibly revitalize the Anima Mundi – or soul of the world? (Vaughan-Lee 22)

Several essays in this book posit that humanity, as a whole, has forgotten that they are one with the natural world. Satish Kumar, (Indian British activist, editor, and Jain monk) writes this in his essay, “Three Dimensions of Ecology: Soil, Soul, and Society,” That’s the challenge for humankind, in the 21st century, is to find humility and overcome duality and disconnection with nature. Nature is not just out there, we are nature too. Natal, nativity, native, and nature all come from the same root. The word nature means: whatever is born

13. “Spiritual Ecology.” Wikipedia, 16 Dec. 2019. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Spiritual_ecology&oldid=931099177. 14. Vaughan-Lee, Llewellyn. Spiritual Ecology the Cry of the Earth: A Collection of Essays. The Golden Sufi Centre, 2016. 15. “Definition of Spiritual | Dictionary.Com.” Www.Dictionary.Com. www.dictionary.com, https://www.dictionary.com/browse/spiritual.

She goes on, in this essay, to talk about how the cumulative effect of this practice may rearrange consciousness. For example, If your practice was to greet and spend time with a tree, you would be much less willing to cut down that tree. I see this as an awareness practice, by taking time to acknowledge our non-human-planet-mates, we become more observant and sensitive to their place in the world and our treatment of them. Similarly, Robin Wall-Kimmerer writes about how the Potawatomi use the verb “to be” a bay instead of the noun usage that it “is” a bay. She writes that her tribe gives life to the natural world with their language.

main cause of disenchantment (Berman 24). He says, The view of nature which predominated in the west down to the eve of the Scientific Revolution was that of an enchanted world. Rocks, trees, rivers, and clouds were all seen as wondrous, alive, and human beings felt at home in this environment. The cosmos, in short, was a place of belonging. A member of this cosmos was not an alienated observer of it but a direct participant in its drama. His personal destiny was bound up with its destiny, and this relationship gave meaning to his life. This type of consciousness—what I shall refer to in this book as “participating consciousness”— involves merger, or identification, with one’s surroundings, and bespeaks a psychic wholeness that has long since passed from the scene. (Berman 16)

This is the grammar of animacy. Imagine seeing your grandmother standing at the stove in her apron and then saying of her, “look it is making soup. It has gray hair.” We might snicker at such a mistake, but also we recoil from it. In English, we never refer to a member of our family, or indeed to any person, as it. That would be a profound act of disrespect; it robs a person of selfhood and kinship, reducing a person to a mirror thing. So it is that in Potawatomi and most other indigenous languages, we’ll use the same words to address the living world as we use for our family. Because they are our family. (16)

And then, The complete reversal of this perception in a mere four hundred years or so has destroyed the continuity of the human experience and the integrity of the human psyche. It has very nearly wrecked the planet as well. The only hope, or so it seems to me, lies in a reenchantment of the world. (Berman 23)

My heart smiled at this example. I thought of the ways that I naturally do this with the plants and trees in my garden — but the rocks and the river? I mused that this must be an amazing feeling of belonging to view the natural world, rivers and rocks included, as your planetfamily. It seemed to me a magical way of thinking, that we live in a real fairytale world where everything buzzed with life. From here, I started to think about how this “ensouled” world could be communicated in the context of visual art, and what that messaging would look like.

He goes on, in depth, about the many scientists and theories that he feels have contributed to our disenchanted state, and although he suggests we should become reenchanted with the world, gives no solid direction to that path.

The two books that I focused on, at this point, were The Reenchantment of Art by Suzi Gablik (17) and the Reenchantment of the World by Morris Berman (18). Before discussing either book, it’s interesting to note that neither of these authors define exactly what enchantment is or specifically how to get it. They both, though, spend most of their texts looking at disenchantment, and how they believe our culture got here. It’s interesting to me that the first meaning of disenchantment is to be “no longer happy, pleased, or satisfied” (19) and enchanted, foremost, is defined as “placed under or as if under a magic spell” (20). In the dictionary, at first glance, they don’t seem to be antonyms. Berman looks mainly at the scientific revolutions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the “Cartesian paradigm,” as a

Gablik also cites Cartesianism — the view that the mind is wholly separate from the corporeal body (21) — as one of the causes for our cultural disenchantment, but adds other interesting reasons for our “state of dissatisfaction” within in the context of art. She looks at male and female archetypes in both art and life, discussing at length the myth of the “patriarchal hero” as a precondition for success under modernism for both men and women. She juxtaposes that archetype with the female, saying, “Modern aesthetics does not easily accommodate the more feminine values of care and responsiveness, and responding to need.” (Gablik 67) She says that one challenge of our current aesthetics is to “transcend the disconnectedness and separation” (Gablik 5) that existed in modernism, adding that this form emphasized withdrawal, antagonism, and nihilism. Gablik’s focus in this book, however, is postmodern art and, even though she describes two starkly different attitudes in postmodernism, she says that both have diverged completely from modernist thinking. She breaks postmodern

16. Kimmerer, Robin Wall. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. Milkweed Editions, 2013. 17. Gablik, Suzi. The Reenchantment of Art. Thames and Hudson, 2002. 18. Berman, Morris. The Reenchantment of the World. Cornell University, 1996. 19. Definition of DISENCHANTED. www.merriam-webster.com, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disenchanted. 20. Definition of ENCHANTED. www.merriam-webster.com, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/enchanted. 21. “Cartesianism.” Wikipedia, 29 May 2020. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cartesianism&oldid=959665057.

work into two opposing types — deconstructive and reconstructive. Her explanation of deconstructive postmodernism includes several descriptions and it is hard to locate one, succinct definition. She describes it as: ...deconstructed of all meaning, the loss of the union between a signifier and signified, anything goes with anything, images are disassociated and decontextualized, works of art as products of consumption, willful abandonment of creativity, a fascination with reduplication, no transcendental cosmic order... (Gablik 33-39) and goes on to say,

we will never move towards healing our ecology without shifting our collective mindset. This dualism has created a state of disenchantment, hopelessness, and nihilism which only widens this divide. The state of enchantment, then, is the reunion of our culture with the Anima Mundi — the soul of the world. To be in an enchanted place is to feel that connection to a world that feels connected to us as well — that place of participating consciousness. And, as an artist, a way for me to start to heal this disconnection is by making participatory, interactive work that brings us back to community and nature. This investigation shifted both what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it in the context of my eco-art. The end of my crankie, then, would be about finding that way back to a union with the natural word… that would be the elixir that saved the village from the dragon. The “magical elixir” would be the third dimension that Macy describes, that shift of consciousness, which needs to happen for the Great Turning of our culture. The definition of “elixir” fits perfectly here as the “cure all,” and the “substance held capable of prolonging life indefinitely.” (22)

Implosive strategies to ban going to extremes-- until the system devours its own empty forms, absorbs its own meaning, creates a void and disappears. And so there is a policy of going nowhere, of not occupying a position, of hovering in place, having no positive horizons, no goals, no constructive alternatives. (Gablik 40) Her main focus of this book is to create a framework for reconstructive postmodern practice, which she says is much less visible. This side of postmodernism she defines much more succinctly.

I could create an ending to my tale that wasn’t about killing the dragon, it was about learning to actually see that we are all that dragon. It’s not about solving one problem, it’s about solving many of them with a shift in consciousness. As I reflected on this more, I realised that I had forgotten why I had even decided to make a crankie in the first place. But reading about the participatory, performance based practices that Gablik describes, I remembered that when I had seen crankie performances for the first time, I was, literally, enchanted with them. The story and music, combined with a handmade, moving scroll, with the audition of the energy from the audience, for me, was delightful and magical.

Reconstructivists are trying to make the transition from eurocentric, patriarchal thinking and the dominator model of culture towards an aesthetic of interconnectedness, social responsibility, and ecological attunement.” (Gablik 22) Gablik showcases several artists and describes how each one, through different ways in their work, works in this reconstructivist way. She provides examples of artists that use rituals, drumming, trance, performance, art in nature and created with materials from nature, and stresses a more “participatory, socially interactive framework for art.” (Gablik 7) What this basically comes down to is that she is advocating new art forms that emphasize our interconnectedness. Which makes sense because our disconnectedness has led to our disenchantment.

This was, for me, an important revelation in the way I think about making art. The creative projects that I make can try to shift the focus from individual to community, and with a deep reverence towards nature, attempt to set in motion actions that will further our cultural awakening to the fact that all life, including ourselves, is deeply interconnected.

So, as I distill all these ideas and what it means in the context of my art making, I come to the following summation. For many different reasons, our culture doesn’t feel at one with the natural world and

22. Definition of ELIXIR. www.merriam-webster.com, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/elixir.

works cited Berman, Morris. The Reenchantment of the World. Cornell University, 1996. “Cartesianism.” Wikipedia, 29 May 2020. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cartesianism&oldid=959665057. Climate Central: A Science & News Organization. www.climatecentral.org, https://www.climatecentral.org/. David. “Origin of the Term.” David Korten. davidkorten.org, https://davidkorten.org/home/great-turning/origin-of-the-term/. Definition of DISENCHANTED. www.merriam-webster.com, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disenchanted. Definition of ELIXIR. www.merriam-webster.com, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/elixir. Definition of ENCHANTED. www.merriam-webster.com, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/enchanted. “Definition of Spiritual | Dictionary.Com.” Www.Dictionary.Com. www.dictionary.com, https://www.dictionary.com/browse/spiritual. Even Under Best-Case Scenario, Sea-Level Rise Will Leave Miami Looking Like Florida Keys | Miami New Times. https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/even-under-best-casescenario-sea-level-rise-will-leave-miami-looking-like-florida-keys-7974881. Gablik, Suzi. Has Modernism Failed? Thames & Hudson, 2004. ---. The Reenchantment of Art. Thames and Hudson, 2002. How Culture Shapes the Climate Change Debate (SSIR). ssir.org, https://ssir.org/books/excerpts/entry/how_culture_shapes_the_climate_change_debate. “It’s Not Your Fault -- Your Brain Is Self-Centered: Short-Term Memory Focuses on Things We Label as ‘ours,’ No Matter How Random They Are.” ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily. com, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/03/190313132241.htm. “It’s over”: Miami Beach Tries to Outrace Climate Change’s Rising Seas. https://news.yahoo.com/its-over-miami-beach-tries-to-outrace-climate-change-and-the-risingseas-160000886.html?soc_src=hl-viewer&soc_trk=fb&fbclid=IwAR39BeG3fOd7NmAH2XUoyqTLrR_idGYPFy76ilHuTmIWQnojqzsp_bbLFE8. Kimmerer, Robin Wall. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. Milkweed Editions, 2013. Macy, Joanna, and Chris Johnstone. Active Hope How to Face the Mess We’re in without Going Crazy. New World Library, 2012. Markman, Art. “Why People Aren’t Motivated to Address Climate Change.” Harvard Business Review, Oct. 2018. hbr.org, https://hbr.org/2018/10/why-people-arent-motivatedto-address-climate-change. Miami: How Rising Sea Levels Continue to Endanger South Florida - Rolling Stone. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/miami-how-rising-sea-levels-endangersouth-florida-200956/. “See Your Local Sea Level and Coastal Flood Risk.” Climate Central. riskfinder.climatecentral.org, http://riskfinder.climatecentral.org. “Spiritual Ecology.” Wikipedia, 16 Dec. 2019. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Spiritual_ecology&oldid=931099177. The Great Turning. https://www.activehope.info/great-turning.html. Vaughan-Lee, Llewellyn. Spiritual Ecology the Cry of the Earth: A Collection of Essays. The Golden Sufi Centre, 2016. Wallace-Wells, David. The Uninhabitable Earth: Life after Warming. Crown Publishing Group, 2020. “What Is a Crankie.” The Last Crankie...a Play by P.H. Lin, 18 Apr. 2019. www.thelastcrankie.com, https://www.thelastcrankie.com/what-is-a-crankie/. Why Your Brain Can’t Process Climate Change | Time. https://time.com/5651393/why-your-brain-cant-process-climate-change/.

“We cannot win the battle to increase the well-being of the web of life, including ourselves, without restoring our inherent emotional bonds with nature - for we will not fight to save what we do not love.” — Stephen Jay Gould

“Love it or Lose it: The Coming Biophilia Revolution”. In S. Kellert & E. O. Wilson (Eds.), The biophilia hypothesis (pp. 415-440). Washington, DC: Island Press

COMMENCEMENT As I was thinking about how to conclude by portfolio, I realized that this growth, this work, wasn’t concluding at all. But in true academic meaning, it is actually just commencing. I came to Goddard to weave the disparate threads of my art practice into something with more form and purpose, and I have done that. I have learned to dig deeper into myself to find more meaning in my study and work. I’ve learned to trust my process and to keep making connections. I learn to keep asking questions for inquiry is at the heart of discovery. I’ve learned that it will all make sense eventually. I’ve learned that it will all come together if you keep doing the work.

Turning my thoughts to my work I see so many beginnings The Shown for Scale project is still developing and I see that it can become much more of a performance or social action piece. While the original concept of photos is good, I feel like there could be so much more potential for interaction if the dress is worn actually moving through the world. The piece would come to life by letting people ask questions or giving them something to take as a reminder of our interaction. My plan for the Elixir crankie is to produce a zine of the story and the paintings from the scroll along with my essay on enchantment. This zine, along with a performance of the crankie, will premiere at the 2021 Miami Zine Fair. Now that I have my cranky technique down, there’s no stopping the production of future crankies — I actually have the next idea already!

I’ve also grown into a more empathetic, grateful, and compassionate person who feels a deeper connection to my community. Much of my reading and study in this program was about social justice, and I needed that reminder to stay vigilant in the fight for human rights.

embroidered journal fragment. 2020

Annotated Resources Abram, David. The Spell of the Sensuous. Vintage Books, 1997. In this work, Abram asks us to return to a state of reciprocity with the natural world. He excavates our use of language to discover how we have become detached from the magic of our world, and urges us to engage our senses to reconnect.

Dean, Jenny. Wild Color: The Complete Guide to Making and Using Natural Dyes. Watson-Guptill, 2010. These techniques are excellent and I have created several dye baths from Dean’s recipes. This introduction to dyes and the dying process is the best reference book that I have found on this subject; she covers all types of natural dyestuffs and mordants to help the color lock to the fibers.

Berman, Morris. The Reenchantment of the World. Cornell University, 1996. It is Berman’s thesis that we have become disenchanted with our world through many reasons, including the scientific revolutions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He argues that we must heal our animistic worldview to improve ourselves and our planet.

Gablik, Suzi. The Reenchantment of Art. Thames and Hudson, 2002. Gablik looks at disenchantment in society from an artworld standpoint, pointing first to modernism and then deconstructivist postmodernism as partial culprits. She describes this book as a meditation on how we can restore aliveness, possibility, and magic to our culture by making art that is more aligned to a reconstructivist perspective, which includes forms that favor community, society, and environmental attunement.

Chanin, Natalie. The Geometry of Hand-Sewing: A Romance in Stitches and Embroidery from Alabama Chanin and the School of Making. Abrams, 2017. This beautiful, illustrated guide to hand-sewing has been my guide to learning many of the stitches and sewing techniques that I use in my textile work. Additionally, the artist, Natalie Chanin, is a huge influence on my style of sewing and in my use of recycled cotton from discarded tee shirts. Chicago, Judy. Beyond the Flower: The Autobiography of a Feminist Artist. Penguin Books, 1997. In this detailed self-portrait, Judy Chicago reveals her thoughts and personal struggles from the period before her infamous work, The Dinner Party, through the opening of The Holocaust Project. Cline, Elizabeth. Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion. Portfolio/Penguin, 2013. Cline takes a deep look at our sartorial consumption and the ways that it affects the environment, garment workers, and our fast-fashion style. Cline presents disturbing facts about the fashion industry as she takes the reader through the production, selling, and, eventually, the discarding of clothing that creates huge landfills of waste. Darms, Lisa, and Johanna Fateman. The Riot Grrrl Collection. Feminist Press. The Riot Grrrl Collection is an archive of original 1990s zines, posters, and other printed matter documenting the growth of the Riot Grrrl movement which originated in the Pacific Northwest. It is a snapshot of one type of thirdwave feminism, that was both applauded for its revolutionary tactics, and faulted for its lack of inclusivity.

Gay, Roxane. Bad Feminist: Essays. Harper Perennial, 2017. In this book of essays, Gay questions the definition of Feminism through her lived experience as a black woman, writer, and educator. This resource was invaluable to me when I was writing my zine, Revolution Womxn Style Now, because I was able to embrace the journey of becoming more intersectional without the fear that I was doing something “wrong.” She gives permission to grow as feminists, making mistakes and stumbles along the way. Greer, Betsy. Craftivism: The Art of Craft and Activism. Arsenal Pulp Press, 2014. Betsy Greer pioneered the term “craftivism” in this book. Here, she looks at where handmade crafts such as knitting, embroidery, pottery, and ceramics intersect with activism. An inspiring source, she has included diverse examples, causes, interviews, and resources for a quieter form of protest. hooks, bell. Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center. South End Press, 2000. Feminist Theory is a powerful primer on the intersection of race and feminism. Hooks brings the reader into the lives of different women with different backgrounds, race, class, and culture and provides insights on how the femiminist movement must move forward with intersectionality and inclusivity. Kimmerer, Robin Wall. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. Milkweed Editions, 2013. Passion, poetry, and science meet and mix in this substantial work by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Each chapter is a story, and these she has organized in sections that outline the lifecycle of sweetgrass, from germination to compost. She weaves the science, spirit, and stories into a book that urges us to recognize, reconnect, and respect nature.

Macy, Joanna, and Chris Johnstone. Active Hope How to Face the Mess We’re in without Going Crazy. New World Library, 2012. The authors describe “Active Hope” as a practice. It is something that you do that is based on Macy’s, “The Work that Reconnects,” in order to maintain energy and enthusiasm while doing the work of activism. Created for individuals, groups, and facilitators, each chapter contains suggestions for exercises and reflection. Morgan, Andrew. The True Cost. Life Is My Movie Entertainment Company, 2015. Morgan’s documentary looks at the fashion industry from all angles. It opens with a heartbreaking look at the 2013 Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh, and investigates what ways this industry is harmful to both people and the environment. Parker, Rozsika. The Subversive Stitch: Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine. I.B. Tauris, 2014. Parker reviews the history of embroidery and how it intersects with women’s art, femininity, and voice. Parker also gives the reader quite a bit of information on embroidery in second-wave feminism as a way of resistance and looks at contemporary works as well. Vaughan-Lee, Llewellyn. Spiritual Ecology the Cry of the Earth: A Collection of Essays. The Golden Sufi Centre, 2016. Spiritual Ecology is a collection of essays which describe how humanity has become separated from nature and the soul of the world -- Anima Mundi. We need to participate in the “Great Turning” and see ourselves as part of our larger, and totally interconnected ecosystem.

David. “Origin of the Term.” David Korten. davidkorten.org, https://davidkorten.org/home/great-turning/origin-of-the-term/. Dean, Jenny. Wild Color: The Complete Guide to Making and Using Natural Dyes. Watson-Guptill, 2010. Definition of DISENCHANTED. www.merriam-webster.com, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disenchanted.

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