WATER WIND EARTH FIRE ELEMENTAL EFFECTS
June 11 - July 4
On the cover: Jeremy Blair. Cursive. Photogram
+EXHIBITIONS
The LBIF is a registered 501(c)(3) organization. Your Membership provides critical support for the Arts, with opportunities and experiences that provide enrichment for all. Visit lbifoundation.org for more information on Membership. Copyright © 2022 Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts and Sciences. All Rights Reserved
Instead of presenting abstractions and representations, this exhibition manifests the influence of water, wind, earth and fire on a work of art, and pays tribute to the elements responsible for enabling life on Earth.
-Linda Weintraub, Juror
About the Juror Linda Weintraub practices eco art as an author, educator, curator, practitioner, and homesteader. Throughout her career she has championed the outposts of vanguard experimentation in the arts as they have evolved over the decades. Weintraub has curated over fifty exhibitions. She is the author of innumerable essays and several books exploring contemporary art and ecology. They include WHAT’s NEXT? Eco Materialism & Contemporary Art (2018), To LIFE! Eco Art in Pursuit of a Sustainable Planet (2012), and AvantGuardians (2007), a series of textlets titled “EcoCentric Topics: Pioneering Themes for Eco-Art”; “Cycle-Logical Art: Recycling Matters for Eco-Art;” “EnvironMentalities: Twenty-two Approaches to Eco-Art”. Additionally, she is the author of such popular books as Art on the Edge & Over, and In the Making: Creative Options for Contemporary Art.
Juror Talk
Biophilia: A Homesteading Adventure Date Saturday, June 11, 5:00pm This illustrated talk will provide evidence of the functional interdependence and aesthetic correspondence with the site that such design principles strive to achieve. It will also describe the emotional fulfillment afforded by cultivating rapport with the environs, a source of gratification that humancentered design typically lacks. My engagement with biophilic design principles extends beyond these architectural and landscaping ventures. They also inspire my homesteading practices, my curating, art-making, and writing. Indeed, they provide the ethical foundation for all my beliefs and behaviors.
LONG BEACH ISLAND FOUNDATION OF THE ARTS + SCIENCES
Presents
Fire + Ice: An Elemental Eco Art Project with Linda Weintraub Date Sunday, June 12, 11:00am - 12:30pm Fee $10 / Free to Members This workshop is designed to reacquaint participants with the twin features of temperature that account for life on Earth- its extraordinary diversity and dynamism. This workshop evokes appreciation for these wondrous realities by inviting participants to engage with fire (via matches) and ice (via ice cubes). We will explore how these intimate interactions apply to climate change on a global scale.
Pre-registration is required. Visit lbifoundation.org
Thanks for putting art in the heart of the community Bank of America recognizes Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts and Sciences for its success in bringing the arts to performers and audiences throughout the community. We commend you on creating an opportunity for all to enjoy and share a cultural experience. Visit us at bankofamerica.com/newjersey.
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Artists Emma Akmakdjian
Margaret Le Jeune
May Babcock
Maria Lupo
Hilary Houston Bachelder
Lisa Madson
Jeremy Blair
Jonathan Marquis
Virginia Bradley
Kelly McGrath
Madeline Davis
Katama Murray
Noreen Dean Dresser
Marco Pinter
Anne Dushanko Dobek
Bonnie Ralston
Christine Elfman
Anna Redwine
Eileen Ferara
Laurie Seeman +
Richard Gere
Joanna Dickey
Andrea Gordon
Ilse Schreiber-Noll
Beth Haber
Laurie Sheridan
Ethan Hamby
Elizabeth Silbaugh
Sarah Heitmeyer
Courtney Starrett
Dana Hemes
Suzy Sureck
Rachel Hibbard
Jason deCaires Taylor
Julia Hill
Patricia Tinajero +
Karen Hillier
Carolyn Hatfield
Sam Horowitz
Stephen Walker
Sarah Hunyadi
Mars Woodhill
Beth Krensky
Emma Akmakdjian Emma Akmakdjian, Susanna Bucht-Akmakdjian, Maru Garcia Miscible Interactions I Silk fibers, found plastic buoy, air stone, algae $1500 Emma Akmakdjian, Susanna Bucht-Akmakdjian, Maru Garcia Miscible Interactions II Silk fibers, glass buoy, air stone, algae $1500 Emma Akmakdjian First draft copy of: Years of Care: Kelp Forest Revival with Women in the Laboratory Book $500 I am currently working on an art project in UCLA’s Braybrook Cell Development and Molecular Biology laboratory for my MFA thesis. In collaboration with three scientists, we are extracting the DNA from 100-year-old kelp to discover if the disappearance of kelp forests is caused by humans. My sculpture utilizes these laboratory processes. My mom and I weave together small representational sculptures of Nereocystis (a type of macroalgae) using silk and small found buoys collected on the beach. Then, working with bio artist, Maru Garcia, we submerge our microalgae in a water tank where they grow and multiply for months. We’re anticipating the algae to attach to the fibers of the woven sculpture. At the end of their growth period, we pull out the sculpture and allow the algae to crystalize as they air dry under a chemical entropy. These artworks are the result of an extensive process tending to the relationships I have with between two generations of women and our care in weaving and growing the algae.
May Babcock May Babcock Mississippi River Mud Construction Artist-made Mississippi River mud paper $650 May Babcock Blackstone River Suite #14 (Water Movements) pulp painting, invasive plants, sediment $380 I begin with specific sites, where I collect plant fibers, sediment, water, and drawings to gain psychological impressions and witness poignant evidence of human activity. I research hydrologies, plant ecologies, geological history, and human-created structures and histories. Material engagement is foundational to my practice—I use seaweed, invasive plants, water, and sediment in many ways and research their histories across time and space. Adventurous hybrids of papermaking and many hand processes fuse fibers, colors, materials, and approaches, chosen for their aesthetic value and contextual or symbolic significance. This broad range of influences coalesce with paper pulp that I make and use for sculptures, pulp paintings, sediment paper, artists’ books, large scale installations, and cyanotypes. In Mississippi River Mud Construction, linen cloth rags are beaten into a watery pulp using a studio machine called a Hollander paper beater. River mud is mixed into the pulp, screens catch the fibers and mud, and the wet papers are hand-pressed together and dried. Similar to sedimentation processes, the paper fibers capture material from muddy water to create solid sculptural forms. In Blackstone River Suite #14 (Water Movements), fibrous invasive plants are cut-up, boiled in an alkaline solution, rinsed, and macerated with water into a pulp. Different plants and also pulps mixed with river sediment create a range of tones. The pulps are poured and layered, and the ‘pulp painting’ pressed and dried. No glues are needed to bond the fibers—as they are pressed and the water expelled, an intermolecular force called ‘hydrogen bonding’ occurs to adhere fiber to fiber. Hydrogen bonding is also how water molecules stick together.
Hilary Houston Bachelder Hilary Houston Bachelder Return Archival Pigment Print $500 Hilary Houston Bachelder Snow Drops Archival Pigment Print $450 I used to fear winter—secluding myself in my apartment, leaving only for essential tasks. I ventured into a blizzard— my mission: to find beauty in foul weather.It worked. My neighborhood turned into a wonderland. My snow photographic project began. At first, I thought a successful snow shoot depended on preparation and protection against the elements, specifically water. I wear layers; my camera has a snow parka and rain cover; I map my route and plan where to shoot and how to compose the image. However, Snow Bomb Cyclone Grayson altered my practice. Water needed to be my collaborator and sometimes my director. On January 4, 2018, the conditions were near white-out. Snow was my subject. But under overcast skies, the light was flat; the monochrome scene had no depth. I needed a location with more light, contrast, and color. On Broadway, the whipping wind grabbed my lens hood. It disappeared into the storm. Without the hood, snow and hoarfrost accumulated on my lens—the solidified water became a natural filter through which I shot “Return.” Furthermore, I was standing under an enormous red neon sign and the snow reflected the blue of early evening. The natural filter melded the two colors, creating a magenta/violet hue in the final print. I continue to shoot snowstorms without a lens hood. In warmer temperatures, some of the flakes will melt on my lens. Therefore, my natural filter will include solid and liquid water. Although that liquid is clear, it adds another layer of refraction by redirecting the light bouncing off a snowy landscape. As a result, my image “Snow Drops,” shot during Winter Storm Izzy, has a painterly effect and becomes an abstraction in print.
Jeremy Blair Jeremy Blair How to Disappear Completely Photogram $250 Jeremy Blair Mineral Photogram $250 Jeremy Blair Cursive Photogram $250 I investigate the intersections of place and self by developing camera-less photograms that transform found organic materials into personal narratives. I create photograms in rural settings in a light-proof darkroom tent. I begin each photogram by arranging found items onto a piece of photosensitive silver paper. Next, I expose the paper with quick flashes of light from a small flashlight, changing the composition with each exposure. Lastly, I soak the paper sequentially in three separate eco-friendly chemicals - Developer, Stop, and Fixer. Developing photograms on-site forces me to embrace variables that add unique effects, like fluctuations in temperature, water quality, and leaking sunlight. Through this process, I draw, collage, and paint with light, discovering patterns in nature that inform patterns in myself. Ultimately, I observe vital ecologies in nature and document experiences through light and chemistry, leading to an intimate connection with place, material, and self.
Virginia Bradley Playa Santa 22 Oil on archival film $3200 Playa Santa 23 Oil on archival film $3200 Alchemy and the performative process of painting are the foundation of my painting process.The submitted works are from the Playa Santa Series, created in my open air studio in Puerto Rico. The sun’s 95 degree heat is used as an alchemical agent to interact and transform oil paint, ammonia, sea water, mineral spirits and sea salt.The works are created in many layers, where chance and order come into play. I too am just one ingredient in the process and do not control the outcome. The alchemical process is activated by exposing the painting to heat and cold (when I am working in the Massachusetts winter). Pouring, burning and sanding are also used to build and subtract into the painting surfaces. Semi-transparent film is the foundation for the images, which reference the ongoing theme of water in my practice.. The studio becomes the athanor or an oven for the interaction of diverse materials, painting mediums and paint to coalesce into realized images.
Madeline Davis Privilege of the PCR Bronze, copper, & 24k gold plating $1500 “ The PCR test to detect Covid virus fits with the idea of corrosion. It decayed even during the making process. The privilege of having access to free PCR tests has become a modern-day ritual, a ceremony we perform out of both self-preservation and an act of courtesy towards one another. But few realize that the plastic packaging it requires doesn’t decay easily, and the impact that COVID-19 has had on our resources. I took these plastic objects and burned them out inside of plaster, leaving only an empty cavity, to fill with bronze. The casting was imperfect, and left an eroded transparency to an object that holds unknown answers. Over time the gold plating will eventually wear away, and in more time the bronze and copper will live out their sustainable traits before succumbing to full decay. My work explores the ways we cope with the chaotic cycle of suffering. We adorn our bodies, feed our bodies, curate our life through the objects that surround us, and practice religion. We attempt to regain a lost sense of autonomy through actions that help us feel power over the unknown. Through metal, ceramic, stone, wood, and dough I utilize the unique transformative abilities of material as a method of inquiry. Objects that are entwined within our history and daily lives are often overlooked; a beautiful ring and good bread both possess the ability to give back lost autonomy.”
Noreen Dresser The Root amidst Good and Evil No. 2 $2200 Human agency is my focus. Using fire, wood, and paper-my process records in charcoal the danger and possibility we face by decisions we make. Wood matches, for me as an artist, are an excellent signifier of human will. Designed to offer control over fire, my use of matches, protect, transform, or destroy in these compositions. Science can give us crucial tools to solve problems from the simple to the most complex. Yet art must address our human nature and raise questions as to what we will do with them.
Anne Dushanko Dobek (outdoor) Perilous Journeys Mixed media installation $3,200 Collectively titled SILENT VOICES, all of my work has a decidedly surreal and at times psychological orientation with a focus on social / environmental issues. Many of my larger installations are created in challenging and remote outdoor locations demanding photographic documentation before being damaged or eliminated by natural forces. The precarious and transient nature of the installations parallels the perilous journeys of refugees, migrants and butterflies. Parallel Migrations is an ongoing series. Over the past three decades, I have traveled globally inviting conversations on migration and climate change. I have attached thousands of silkscreened butterfly clusters to trees, rocks and repurposed or constructed garden furniture. In many instances the clusters are placed to function as trail markers leading visitors into forests, parks, and even a French village. The deterioration of the butterfly images due to extreme wind, snow, rain, hurricanes and ongoing climate changes references the more than 50 % species loss of insects. Similarly, these unique weather events have contributed to a global loss of food resources for all animals including butterflies. As you look walk the trail here at LBI look up down and perhaps get a glance at a late migrating Monarch.
Christine Elfman Cloth Water Stone II Photograph NFS Taking a picture is like catching a bird, or turning a person into a statue. Yet experience shows us that the harder you try to hold something still, the more it’s ruined. At first glance, these pictures show a firm grasp on concrete subjects. Yet with sustained direct observation, they may remind us of the limits of representation. They are purple because they are made by fading paper dyed with lichen in the sun for weeks. The simple breakdown of the lichen dye molecules forms the image. The resulting photograph continues to fade away whenever it’s seen in the light of day. The same light that makes it, also erases it. It will eventually become a ghost image. These pictures ask us to consider our own relationship to change and the unknown. Should we hide them away in a hermetic vault? Or should we let them fade away quickly in a bright room? In an image obsessed era, they ask us, what is the value of things we cannot see?
Eileen Ferara Anthropocene Bloom Mixed fiber hand cast paper, cut paper block prints and wire $2000 Water and wind work together to form the architecture for this paper cast relief that begins as Thai kozo bark and recycled cotton fiber. The bark is cooked and broken down in water and soda ash, then pounded to break down the fibers that are mixed with more water in a vat. Thin sheets are formed and applied to the stones of an Embankment railroad wall that runs through the community where I live. Built in 1905, and inaccessible to humans, many sections of the wall have been taken over by invasive plants, which I often depict in my art. Wind dries the pieces, and conditions of each day affect the way the work is formed. I wonder about the history of the stones, past people, animals and plants that have inhabited this space. I think of my completed artworks as imagined habitats and many of the pieces in the series can be adapted to fit the space where they are exhibited. The flowers and vines in ‘Anthropocene Bloom’ are Lonicera Japonica, commonly known as Japanese Honeysuckle, a beautiful but invasive plant to North America.
Richard Gere Monuments I Smoke on paper $1800 Monuments IV Smoke on paper $1800 This body of work is created using oil-soaked wicks (torches perhaps) investigating the cultural monuments that stop time to commemorate a moment and freeze history, only to be re-contextualized from the actual passing of time. The smoke drawings use an ethereal material to explore monuments, both obscure and recognizable with the soot of a torch. These pieces call into question how fragile our constructs and guiding philosophies are when we consider the foundations of our societal fabric and search for concrete holdings that are often not there.
Andrea Gordon (outdoor) Burned Ceramics, wood, a variety of organic matter, fire, and wire $5000 A ceramic pit fire requires layering ceramic pieces made from dirt and minerals, with organic materials like coffee, banana peels, copper carbonate and cow dung. The pile of ceramics and materials is covered with wood and set on fire. The ceramic pieces for the Elemental Effects show were made in a pit fire in the fall of 2021. The process of making them and the resulting forms are a metaphor for the new restrictive voting laws in Georgia which are literally burning down the house of democracy for the purpose of maintaining political power. The finished pieces represent Stacy Abrams and Fair Fight (the organization which registered over 800,000 new voters in Georgia). They strengthened community and showed great resilience fighting for voting rights, much like the stronger and more beautiful fired ceramic pieces that came out of the pit fire. The entire pit fire process and resulting ceramic pieces, to me, are representative of the both the destructive and constructive powers that comes from fire.
Beth Haber Beach Reads (Silica Edition) Olivine,sand, acrylic, paper, driftwood, hourglass (opening page text of “The Edge of the Sea” by Rachel Carson) $1800 “Beach Reads (silicate editions)” The Periodic Table opens the content on a book of wonders. It provides an essential guide to the dynamic effects of the elements on the life of our planet and beyond. They form the pages of the book of life. The origin of our word “read” derives from “radan” describer of dreams, solver of riddles. This work is inspired by Project Vesta, a nonprofit organization, with plans to utilize olivine (a primary component of the Earth’s upper crust mantel). This beautiful element with hues of green might potentially help solve the riddle of planet sustainability as this mineral has the capacity to capture carbon dioxide as it breaks down. The strategy involves bringing mined olivine to beaches at a cost of $10 per ton of carbon capture where ocean waves will expedite the breaking down the mineral and pull the CO2 from the atmosphere and into the water. As waves act upon the molecule, the bicarbonate washes into oceans and precipitates as carbonate onto the ocean floor. Olivine is used by marine organisms to build shells. It is also possible that the process may help fight ocean acidification. The “Beach Reads” materially responds to the aspirations of this project.
Ethan Hamby Radient Core Glass, wood $900 My work provokes viewers to look inquisitively into their surroundings. Through morphological forms the viewer is able to explore how a creative and imagined world meshes with that of our shared lived experience; a connection that binds us across the globe, between living and nonliving things. I often use elemental materials such as ceramics, glass, or wood because of its organic connection nature, and to the artisan’s hand. This work was born from fire. Starting with melting silica, sodium, and calcium to form the glass, a bubble was blown into wooden pine box while hot. Using a softwood such as pine allowed for the glass to burn and shape the glass as it was blown further. After the piece is finished and assembled it continues to evolve as the pine box dries and tears apart due to the fiery process of its creation. I am like a wilderness guide leading travelers through the depths of my mind. Instead of didactically revealing the key to each work the audience finds their own markers to make senses of.
Sarah Heitmeyer Sarah Heitmeyer 10 Minutes In Between Ceramic $275 I return to the water’s edge to feel my mind empty before me, releasing a swell of intentions to drift and find resonance with the tide. Water gives form to energy we cannot see; the wind, the tide or an applied force that grows and reflects. The movement gives my eye something to focus on, while my mind takes a breath.” Sarah recreates these moments through ceramic wall tile. The clay and glazes remind us of what the earth is made of. Glazes run and pool as they fire in the kiln. Different color clays change the tint of the glaze applied on top, just as geology layers time and elements. Sarah uses digital, craft, and studio production based techniques. Digital technologies’ potential for photo realism invites the viewer closer to find intangible moments frozen in ceramic materials. Her processes of computer-aided design, mold making, press molding, slip casting, and glaze formulation allows her to offer a quiet, immense moment to find yourself within.
Dana Michele Hemes (outdoor) Fescue/Homo 2 Wood, artificial turf, hardware $2500 Fescue/Homo leans into the absurdity and dependency in the relationship between humans and turfgrass. Grass lawns are commonplace, but also complex in their history, meaning, and impact — from sheep-grazed pastures to luxurious gardens to public parks and massive golf courses to private suburban lawns. Grass is one of the largest agricultural crops, fueling a highly profitable industry of chemicals and equipment. Fertilizer runoff wreaks havoc on aquatic habitats, and some herbicides and pesticides are linked to cancer, liver and kidney damage, and birth defects. However, lawns also serve as spaces for gathering, rest and recreation. They reduce erosion and absorb rainwater. They can be indicators of socioeconomic status, or points of pride or competition. They bring us to our knees when weeds emerge. They stand as metaphors and political statements. Humans shape grass, just as grass shapes humans. This version of Fescue/Homo does not include the indoor portion that activates the human/turfgrass relationship. It is a functioning, living system, sustained by natural and technological system components, and maintained by gallery visitors. This installation consists of a synthetic turf-covered Adirondack chair, located outdoors. The chair is an invitation for leisure, lounging and contemplating. The artificial turf covering connects the human to our dependency on grass, while providing a place for humans to enjoy soaking up some UV rays. Fescue/Homo is an example of art that locates itself within a system made up of many small interactions. Each moment is an event-- an active, participatory state where all parts of a system (human, non-human, living, non-living) affect and are affected. I aim to illuminate the connectedness of our environments, and provide a viewpoint that reframes our individual roles and impacts in the world.
Rachel Hibbard (outdoor) Air - Line Aluminum, wood and plastic propellers $800 Air Field is a kinetic installation adaptable in its proportion, its material a variable number of model airplane propellers and air. It demarcates the interface between architecture and atmosphere. Air Field adapts to and animates its support, making the invisible visible. This swarm of rustling propellers registers the interplay of our planet’s dance with the sun.
Julia Hill (outdoor) Rubble Coyote 1: Wait Concrete rubble, salvaged steel, hypertufa, moss $5000 Rubble Coyote 3: Recoil Concrete rubble, salvaged steel, hypertufa, moss $5000 Rubble Coyote 4: Rest Concrete rubble, salvaged steel, hypertufa, moss $5,000 The sculptural creatures that make up the Rubble series are assembled from salvaged steel, concrete rubble, and other man-made detritus collected by the artist while hiking, paddling, and otherwise existing amidst Atlanta’s streets, forests and fringes. The forms are abstracted animals, seemingly evolved from twisted and eroded industrial and urban components. The artist also incorporates sections of sculpted hypertufa, a mix of cement, organic matter, vermiculite, and moss. The hypertufa mixture retains moisture from rain and humidity, and supports the colonization of moss, a very slow process that is uniquely influenced by each location the sculptures visit, due to naturally occurring spores distributed by wind and water. Creating this work involves a slow and patient interaction with the world. Moving through the city with an observant and creative eye, increasing awareness of unlikely resources, and inviting the slow process of natural moss growth to influence the forms over time helps the artist directly prod her own anthropocene-era anxiety. Over time, the sculpted work will develop sections of verdant mossy skin, transforming each sculpture. The rubble series is an attempt to look forward with a desperate hope that in time, the creative application of the remnants of our past can lead to something full of life, a place to thrive.
Karen Hillier (outdoor) Zip. Up. Stereo pinhole photograph, pigment print on film $750 A collaboration: Wind, sunlight, time, pinholes. and black and white film. Each element above contributes to the formation of the photograph. They interact to create a specific photo. If an element is shifted in its particularity, for example the velocity of the wind slows, what is recorded on film shifts in appearance. The outcome is unknown. Each exposure is an experiment. Additionally. the pinhole camera has no viewer. I must guess what is included in the frame of each photo as well as composition. Once the film is processed, I know far more about the effects of Wind, Sunlight, and Time as collaborators in the artistic process
Sam Horowitz (outdoor) Merge (Circulation) Ice core from the South Pole, and from inner-city glaciers of Boston and Buffalo, modified freezer, frost. $5500 This work exists within the running freezer. Three ice cores occupy the space. Over the course of the exhibition the frost within the freezer will build up and begin to join the cores. As frost builds up, the labels become obscured while their separate origins of the cores themselves merge, and become a new collective object. I was given the South Pole cores from the National Ice Core Laboratory in Denver. I dug the NY and MA cores myself, from urban parking lot snow banks. As visitors open the modified freezer to view the work, they allow humidity to flow in as cool air escapes. In this artificial cryosphere, the cores combine over time, spreading over and between one another. By touching, the viewer is implicated, acting as a catalyst for impending chaos. This piece utilizes the process of sublimation, by which ice turns directly into a gas rather than melting into a liquid. This phenomenon is common in arid, sunny climates. However, sublimation also occurs much closer to you - colloquially, as freezer burn. Merge (Circulation), is an interactive artwork in which ice drilled by Antarctica’s South Pole Ice Core Project rests between cores from “inner-city glaciers” (plowed snowbanks) sampled in historic American industrial cities. This time-sensitive piece brings an uncanny familiarity to the laws of thermodynamics, illustrating the nexus between human interaction, climate change, and entropy.
Sarah Hunyadi The Fall Mixed media, alcohol ink $270 Shape Of Water Alcohol ink, water $300 Sarah Hunyadi creates abstract fluid artwork using liquefied acrylic paint, resin, and alcohol ink. I am drawn to the flow and movement that comes with fluid art. The results are often unpredictable and therefore allow me to create intuitively and be completely in the moment. For “Shape of Water” I blended alcohol ink with isopropyl alcohol and used air to move it around to create the majority of the piece. I then added water to the alcohol to create additional shading and detail to complete the full fluid effect. These studio processes mimic the forces that shape the earth’s contours, such as laminar flow, dissolution, and evaporation
Beth Krensky Keys to Unlock the Beginning Before the End Organic matter from various oceans, copper, iron, gold leaf NFS Everything passes and everything stays, but our thing is to pass, pass by making paths, paths over the sea. Antonio Machado, Proverbs and Songs, 1912 Long before humans inhabited the earth, primeval oceans existed. The elemental force of water has both sustained living beings and has shaped the ground upon which we stand. This piece contains keys to unlock our memories and connections to the beginning of our own, or planetary, time. The piece both references and was created by the ancient force of water. The keys are composed of bits of organic detritus that once lived in various oceans. The pieces of sea fans, coral, and plant life have been smoothed by the tides and sand after their death. These elements are combined with antique skeleton keys through an electroplating process. They are a reminder to us of what has come before our species and what may be there after our demise. Scientific data supports that we are in the middle of a 6th mass extinction on earth due to the actions of humans. Perhaps these keys can open up our connection to the seas to compel us to act to save them, and us. 9 ( Rosenberg, K. et. al. (2019) Decline of North American Avifauna, In Science, 19 Sep 2019 • Vol 366, Issue 6461 • pp. 120-124)
Margaret LeJeune Watershed Triptych Bioluminescent photogram with dinoflagellates and USGS hydrology maps $1200 Watershed Triptych explores hydrological movement and ocean health. Working with bioluminescent-rich sea water in her studio, photographer Margaret LeJeune performs carefully choreographed motions that awaken dinoflagellates to illuminate United States Geological Survey Hydromaps. These organisms, colloquially known as sea sparkle, are the same marine life that generate red tide algal blooms. Though sometimes naturally occurring, these harmful blooms have been increasing in numbers over the past 40 years. As climate change ushers in large and more powerful storms, industrial farms are often flooded, resulting in excessive nutrients and fertilizers spilling into the waterways. These images represent the run-off paths of the three largest agricultural watersheds in the United States and the outflow areas where harmful red tide events have been recorded.
Maria Lupo Evolution/Extinction Mixed media, topsoil, acrylic, glitter $450 Evolution/Extinction intersects the written word/language with elements that can destroy, heal and preserve. Scorching the pages with fire, the process begins. Struggling to control the destruction, water is introduced to halt the flames lending temporary, cooling relief. Yet, the written word’s future and form are influx. Warding off its extinction, a mud poultice is applied over the altered book endeavoring to preserve and protect what is left. The forever altered book dries gently in the sun under the watchful, prophetic eye of the dinosaur. Each series or distinct piece in my body of work aligns with a particular message or story that I am bound to share. Whether the artwork is two or three-dimensional, it is to express my feelings and share my craft. The images are frequently autobiographical, yet they regularly connect to the greater concerns of humankind and issues of the day. Finding their way through images and media, the human condition, our place in the world, the environment and social justice are matters that are highlighted in my work.
Lisa Madson Burnout Steam printed paper with overprint $750 I use whatever media that strikes me as fulfilling the message of the beauty and fragility of the environment. I have most recently used steam dyed canvas or paper as well as Cyanotype overcoated with an encaustic to share the forms and colors of nature. Work by Jasper John’s, Jennifer Bartlett and Andrew Goldsworthy have been of great interest to me. I am from New Jersey so I have access to many beautiful areas. The Delaware river, the Highlands hiking area and the shore. I show in the tri-state area most recently at the Hunterdon art museum and Frontline arts. I work as a teaching artist and I am a member of the international Nature Printing Society.
Jonathan Marquis Downwaste (Grinnell I) Cyanotype and glacial residue on paper, made with the melting edge of Grinnell Glacier, Glacier National Park $2000 Downwaste (Grinnell II) Cyanotype and glacial residue on paper, made with the melting edge of Grinnell Glacier, Glacier National Park $2000 Jonathan Marquis is a multi-media artist, writer, and mountaineer, seeking immersive experiences within mountainous terrain to consider more-than-human geographies. His investigations of the landscape began as an endeavor to draw all the remaining glaciers in the state of Montana. He has since covered thousands of miles on foot in isolated locations, translating his encounters through drawing, painting, alternative photographic processes, and video. “Downwaste” is a series of cyanotypes produced by the melting edge of glaciers in Glacier National Park. The cyanotype medium, receptive to sunlight and material encounters, records the glacier’s melt and residue onto the paper’s surface. The glacier’s photographs are stark reminders these so-called ruins of climate change are dynamic agents that offer a space to imagine a rich glacial future.
Kelly Anne McGrath Self-Analytic Ecosystem Encaustic and Oil on Panel $1750 Through painting and sculpture, I want to engage the viewer in a reflective visual dialogue that explores what it means to be human, fragile, and simultaneously a part of and disconnected from one’s surrounding environment. I have been painting with encaustic since 2009, the appeal of wax is the living quality of the material. Wax is mutable, shaped by fire, with a sense of timelessness. Using a feathery torch flame, the heat lightly touches and moves the wax, like a hot brush in a process referred to as fusing. The state of the wax changes from liquid to solid in a matter of seconds. After appyling many layers to build a surface, and letting it cool, the excavation process for scribing lines can begin. Friction is another method I use for fusing, laying material down with a stencil, and then brushing and scraping the surface, builds enough heat to bind the layers together. The process of working with wax is an embodied experience, activating the sense of smell and warmth, movement and tactility. By collecting imagery and symbols that I repeat, I create a language to guide viewers’ personal reflections. In a separate but connected aspect, I look at organisms as organized bits of information. That may be why I find the intersection of daily life and the ever-growing technological interfaces that track, analyze and redefine the human condition fascinating and terrifying.
Katama Murray In the Shadows III Cyanotype, screenprint $250 Growing up in New England, I have become increasingly aware of how segments of society simultaneously notice while others disregard manufactured objects in conjunction with the natural world. By integrating found objects, the work creates parallels between anthropogenic materials and natural substances to recontextualize how they are experienced together within ocean waters. This juxtaposition of manufactured and natural references the ways in which these materials coexist among coastal ecosystems, echoing a simultaneous tension and kinship between them. Shadows III seeks to capture the essence and motion of the synthetic fishing debris and organic seaweed intermingling with one another underwater. The incorporation of Knotted Wrack seaweed, commonly known as Rockweed, was sustainably harvested at low tide from my hometown in Maine, imbuing a sense of place and additional connection to the earth. The process of cyanotype printing, which utilizes water to develop the image created by UV light rays, helps to achieve aspects of ambiguity, reminiscent of how objects undulate beneath the water’s surface.
Marco Pinter Less Ephemeral #3: Cascading Desire Hanging scroll (fabric print) $580 Less Ephemeral #33: Cardinal Flux Hanging scroll (fabric print) $580 My work explores the underlying mechanisms of perception, creating situations of conflict between our higher level consciousness and lower level perception. I find inspiration in dance and sculpture, but also in cognitive psychology, neuroscience and mathematics. Much of my work with dancers is an exploration of the ephemeral, impermanent nature of dance, and attempts to find areas of permanence through the use of choreographic sculpture or abstract visualizations created by dancers’ movements. My latest series, “Less Ephemeral”, employs a complex process where dancers interact with thermally-sensitive fabric and are photographed by a high-end industrial thermal camera. The camera captures the residue of the movement over time, as the heat of the dancer’s body is applied and then slowly dissipates. I then translate this to the visual realm using a variety of thermal palettes, and create aluminum prints of the resulting images.
Bonnie Ralston Hubble Ultra Deep Field - Two Rods Salts, vinegar, and rust on cotton paper $500 Hubble Ultra Deep Field - Jumper Handle Salts, vinegar, and rust on cotton paper $500 Hubble Ultra Deep Field - Wire Tie Salts, vinegar, and rust on cotton paper $500 This ongoing series is inspired by NASA’s Hubble Ultra Deep Field capture—the deepest image of the universe ever taken. It has been used to search for galaxies that existed between 400 and 800 million years after the Big Bang. To me, it is close to a religious icon, similar to the United States Geological Survey’s Geological Time Spiral. From NASA’s website: In vibrant contrast to the rich harvest of classic spiral and elliptical galaxies, there is a zoo of oddball galaxies littering the field. Some look like toothpicks; others like links on a bracelet. A few appear to be interacting. These oddball galaxies chronicle a period when the universe was younger and more chaotic. Order and structure were just beginning to emerge. In the same spirit of universal trial-and-error and limitless possibility, street detritus such as paint can lids, gaskets, and fence post caps are corroded onto 100% cotton paper, leaving behind a unique textural and visual trace of process and emergence.
Anna Redwine Ancestor Gathering- Long Beach Island, NJ, 2022 Installation (carbon on paper, found textiles, forest) NFS This installation explores the inevitability of life cycles and the interconnectedness of life. It is a collaboration with the natural elements of the New Jersey coast and the universal forces of decomposition. Each tree is an ancestor totem, composed of an original self-portrait drawn to conjure an individual ancestor and dressed in a vintage textile. Over the course of several seasons of exposure to salt wind, bright sunshine and biting rain, the carbon drawings will fade and decay, the gowns will mildew and unravel and, like us, they will all ultimately fall to the ground to be reanimated. Together, they are intended to evoke a spirit of both ritual and conviviality- a baptism, a tea party, a funeral. Through them, I invite viewers to participate briefly in the ephemeral celebrations and cycles of life.
Ilse Schreiber-Noll (outdoor) Triptych: Weathered Mixed media on wood $1500 The work I am representing to you is a work in progress. I have subjected three works for several weeks to the elements of nature by leaving them outside, exposed to rain, wind and snow. During this short timespan, I was able to observe slight changes in the works. The color bleached. The paper and linen that I had collaged lifted off. The sand fell off. Also, Nature seemed to reject all foreign materials not in tune with it, just like the human body does. In this case, materials the materials that it rejected were not biodegradable. Mother Nature must “know” that these will destroy the soil, the most precious cover of the Earth. After the “Elemental Effects” exhibition, I will bring the works back into my studio where I will finish them by integrating natural materials like roots that I found in the forests that surround me. I will also add small books that have been exposed to fire.
Laurie Seeman + Joanna Dickey Friendship with the Elements: Homage to don Alberto Taxo Mixed Media: natural materials, earth pigments,charcoal, paint, gold leaf, fiber on canvas $1200 Strawtown Studio Ushai: Friendship with the Elements, an Homage to don Alberto Taxo Mixed Media: natural materials, earth pigments, charcoal, paint, ink, gold leaf, fiber on canvas $900 We have studied with a shaman from the Quechua people of Ecuador. His name, don Alberto Taxo. He is a native teacher who works with the elements. This is the way of his people. Living with the elements has become our constant companions and a way of life for us. For the past two Covid years we have been listening to don Alberto speak from Ecuador. He has been helping people to live in love, and to project love, and not fear in these times. Always reminding us to be in thoughtful contact with the elements which accompany us always. This all changed when don Alberto beloved teacher in February. This show provides an opportunity for us to bring forth an art work as a tribute to his teachings. Earth is presented as cotton strips stained with different earth pigments and braided. Fire is represented by willow sticks charred and ashes mounted on a painted fire background. Air is represented by feathers arranged with images of the eagle of North America and the condor of South America. Water is represented by smooth stream rocks.
Laurie Sheridan (outdoor) Rust, Air and Soot Wheelbarrow, Tillandsia (Spanish Moss), Burned Bones $1000 I imagine a future where nature has become hyper-resilient. This may manifest in an enhanced or enlarged presence in a stage of transformation. My creations stand ready to reanimate and restore what has been lost.My assemblage Rust, Air and Soot takes the form of a fantastical co-existence. The rusty wheelbarrow has outlived its former use, transformed by exposure to the elements over time. Now it levitates. Nestled within is Spanish moss, a plant which lives on air, its resilience a miracle of evolution. Intertwined are bones, bleached white by the sun and blackened by fire. The cumulative effect is one of a new symbiosis sparked by the changes the elements have engendered. More than the sum of their parts, I see them here as a single entity, a micro-ecosystem.I give expression to the values of harmony with nature and environmental responsibility. My work presents the transformation and revitalization that is possible within all of us.
Liz Silbaugh Earth Immolation Mud, silica, acrylic on brown paper $500 I began making this painting with the idea of land as backdrop/contrast/ultimate burial ground for civilization/craft/ human effect. But as I interacted with paint, dirt, and silica, brushing and scraping with sticks and straw, the earth became less of a backdrop and more of a force and an energy source in itself, flowing with currents, showing in its surface the whorls and “grain,” suggesting the directionality of fur, wood, meat – and of course fire, water, and air. Though earth seems solid and still to us, we know from science that it teems with activity at a molecular level and that from moment to moment, as well as from millennia to millennia, it is both subject to and expressive of the dynamics of time. (A note on the paper: I chose plain unbleached brown paper, rough around the edges, unframed, to highlight the raw quality earth and energy in the piece.)
Courtney Starrett (with Susan Reiser) Oceans and Oxides NOAA sea ice data, cyanotype, copper oxides, and paper $800 This work utilizes climate and environmental data. The work on paper combines cyanotype prints with embossed verdigris (copper oxide) transfers. Data drawings are inspired by the bubble net patterns of hunting humpback whales. The drawings are cut from copper sheet and chemically treated to create a patina which is embossed onto paper. My materializations layer and embed data through process, materials, and data. I am a maker of objects. I utilize data as a raw material to make meaningful forms with both an aesthetic allure and intellectual intrigue. Through an innovative creative workflow which I call data materialization, I work through custom computer scripts, multiple software packages, and traditional craft techniques to create objects that are conceptually connected by design and material. Data materialization embeds conceptually relevant data in the designs with the primary objective to attract and inspire rather than present the data in a way in which it could be decoded. All custom code for my data materialziations are developed in collaboration with Susan Reiser.
Suzy Sureck Lather inks, water, Denril on archival paper $1500 The Shape of Fire Burnt paper, framed $1450 Through drawings and installations, conditions are created in which wind, light, breath, root systems, fire or water are revealed through qualities intrinsic to themselves. In this way, I work intuitively with my favorite collaborators, the elements themselves. The Shape of Fire was made in my wood stove during a very cold winter of 2018. Collaborating with fire, ash and smoke, I’m drawn to the charred line and form from the embers’ erratic movements, and fire’s ability to both create and destroy. Assembled, the fire drawings are reminiscent of a quirky magical landscape. In Lather, I work with water’s fluidity and structure, translucency, and unpredictability. There is a dance of intention and chance between elemental happenings and gestures from my hand. Liquid indigo surrenders to humidity, evaporation, air, breath, and gravity, shifting from its initial place. I use non-absorbent Denril paper to prolong this process. Pages are layered for a composition referencing Da Vinci’s water study of 1510. Lather, is a drawing of aquatic joy and grief, considering water as the source of life and nourishment, as well as cataclysmic devastation.
Jason deCaires Taylor For the past 16 years I have been creating underwater museums and sculpture parks beneath the waves, submerging over 1,100 living artworks throughout the world’s oceans and seas. Themes explored by these artistic creations include, among others, the climate emergency, environmental activism, and the regenerative attributes of nature. The sculptures create a habitat for marine life whilst illustrating humanity’s fragility and its relationship with the marine worlds. My subjects mainly feature members of the local community, focusing on their connection with their own coastal environment. Museums are places of conservation, education, and about protecting something sacred. We need to assign those same values to our oceans.
Patricia Tinajero + Carolyn Hatfield (outdoor) Com/posted Laser cut paper, slime mold $850 COM-POSTED, an ephemeral installation, challenges land fragmentation as an arbitrary intervention with/on the land. The vernacular image of signages posted to keep people out of private property is subverted by the artwork, reintroducing flexible boundaries. The use of this image-text brings attention to the ecological urgency of bioregions as a way to reshape human-imposed boundaries. The posted signs are made of natural fibers and cultured with yellow slime mold spores. The substrate of the sign is ingrained with the food source for the mold providing a complete cultivation cycle to the artwork. For the installation, multiple signs cluster together in suspension between trees to inhabit the space. The artwork also responds to environmental changes in temperature and moisture. The uncontrollable climate factors affect the rate of changes and the speed of decomposition in this collaboration with the slime mold, artists, and site.
Stephen Walker Overexposed Mixed media $1000 My mixed media piece, “Overexposed” was created to represent a physical passage of time. To meet the criteria of this call for entries, I used an existing abstract serigraph of peeling paint layered beneath an identical print then manipulated the top layer by cutting and curling to create shadows and depth. My experimental nature of this project was to simulate a type of science fiction, futuristic portrayal of overexposure. The result is an intriguing assemblage which beckons the viewer to look deeper inside the cutaways.
Mars Woodhill Elements of Nature - Series I - Fire Mixed Media - acrylic, ash, burnt wood, acrylic mirror $750 Elements of Nature - Series II - Metal Mixed Media - acrylic, rusted iron, acrylic mirror $700 My paintings, sculptures and installations are abstract studies of the human-nature relationship. Through my work, I hope to promote a reverence and respect for the planet earth and to foster a deeper human connection with nature. Current work explores the ancient philosophy of the Five Elements - Earth, Wood, Water, Metal and Fire - an idea that has resonated with philosophers, religions and cultures throughout time. As an artist, this concept provides a construct in which to explore color, texture, transparency, reflection and materiality. The juxtaposition of modern, sleek surfaces with natural materials underscores the crisis between man and our planet’s survival. My painting process mimics the scientific forces which earth has experienced through the eons: the stabilization/destabilization of fluids and matter. I purposefully avoid manmade tools to control materials. The result--just as in nature--manifests as implosions/explosions, striations and other geomorphic effects
ART INSTALLED ON THE NATURE TRAIL Anne Dushanko Dobek Andrea Gordon Dana Hemes Rachel Hibbard Julia Hill Karen Hillier Sam Horowitz Laurie Sheridan Ilse Shreiber-Noll