I usually call myself a photographer and it's certainly something I'm known for but my background is a many faceted thing in terms of art. I certainly cross boundaries, straying into everything from stone carving to weaving and ceramics.
Having served three apprenticeships has also left me a classically trained painter and blacksmith. So, no there isn't a lot I won't do.
One of the best things about being artist in residence at Tule Elk Park is the freedom to just be creative without being bound by any title other than artist. Aside from the personal freedom that also makes it easier to work with students who don't have a lot of artistic boundaries yet.
Tule Elk Park focuses heavily on interacting with their garden and students have at least some outside time each day where they encounter living growing things, and typically, good old fashioned dirt.
As part of my project paradigm I'm working on using many elements from the on campus garden in conjunction with found a foraged items from around the city. Things like, leaves, sticks, pine cones and pine needles, anything that's surrounding us, often going unnoticed.
The goal is to continue the theme of the school in promoting a healthy relationship with our natural surroundings and settings. I'd like to also encourage the students to re-imagine their entire world.
Today we worked on a project that did just that. We gathered fallen leaves and sticks to assemble into simple mobile's that are a re-envisioning of the trees they came from, complete with name "leaves" that not only add a compositional element but serve as a visual maker of the collaborative team element that went into making the mobiles.
Fantastic stuff and the kids did great.
