Grove Street Illuminated - Downtown Boise
What is your primary medium?
That's really difficult to answer. I work in a little bit of everything. I have worked in printmaking and sculpture, so materials of all kinds for that. But really over the course of the last, I would say, 10 years I've focused in on glass, kiln formed glass. So that's a serious interest. But I would say that I work in a lot of different materials.
What got you interested in doing art?
That's another difficult question to answer. I feel like I've tried to answer that question my whole life, but there's really, I think on a deeper level, when you're an artist, you're just an artist. I mean, maybe for some there's something that sparks a desire or a reason to begin creating. I just think that it's always just been part of me and part of who I am and something that I really feel like I have to do. And that's where I feel like I can contribute something to the world.
Where do you get the inspiration for what you create?
Inspiration comes from a lot of different places and sources. I feel like I'm a studio artist, but I'm also a public artist. And so as a public artist, oftentimes, that type of inspiration is driven by all kinds of different factors. There's a site and there's a connection to community and there is history to focus on or there's a desire for regenerating an area or a site in order to activate it. So those have a lot of different motivations, and a lot of different inspirations come out of that. In my studio practice there's a lot of different things that have been an inspiration over the years. Right now, I guess I could answer that I have really been focused on more sort of cosmological types of ideas and phenomena. I've always really been interested in reading and studying quantum physics and so that is kind of an endless source of inspiration. I think it's showing up more and more in my work, especially over the last probably three, four years. And I think on a conceptual level, there's just a desire to, through abstraction, be able to make work that is really kind of focused on this idea of lightness and being able to almost sort of have the artwork feel like it has a sense of its own light source. I'm far from really feeling like I'm achieving that, but that is something I feel like I'm playing with in my printmaking. I feel like I'm playing with that in my glass. I have been incorporating lighting more often into my public work and into some of my studio works.
Wil Kirkman mentioned he worked with you on Grove Street illuminated?
Yes, Wil, and I did work together on that and he's such an amazing person and artist. Actually that project, me using neon and working with him, that was the first lighting I really explored and it's just grown from there. Of course, with all the LED technology and sort of the soft, even lighting that you can get through the different products, it's really fun to incorporate that into public art pieces now.
What gets you up in the morning and willing to come to your studio to work?
Besides black tea? No, I'm always so excited to get to work in the morning. There's lifetime's of ideas and projects and things for me to do. Sometimes that can be a source of frustration, but most of the time, it is a source of motivation and inspiration. My husband, daughter and I we’re sort of homesteaders and we've been building a house. And so I don't really separate any of that from my sense of being an artist. So there's always something to do. There's always something to continue to explore and to learn and if I could come around multiple lifetimes and continue all of this, I would do it.
When you're creating something to fit a space or a concept, what's your process?
It can be challenging. But I feel like my process is really sort of a natural one. For me anyway. Over the years of working in the public art realm I feel like I've kind of honed in on what works for me to try to really activate or evoke, what that site needs to have or should have. I kind of look at it like a mathematical equation, right? That there's this answer at the end of it and I'm just trying to gather all the components that need to be part of that equation. There's no one right answer, because there's a lot of different artists that might come up with a different solution to that same problem. But for me, gathering all of those inputs is important. The first thing that I really try to do is physically spend time at the site. Not even with a sketchbook, just try to really almost forget about what the call to artists is, or what they're asking for, and just really spend time in the space or at the site and study the surroundings, study the patterns of people moving. Study the sun, where is it oriented? Where's the light coming through? Where's the trees? You know, all of those factors. I just try and like, soak that in and then I feel like if I really have a good basis with that under my belt, like physical presence in the space, then from there things start to just unfold. Then of course, there's other inputs. What is the desire that the public art call is asking for? Is that a historic site? Did they want some history? Oftentimes it just seems like there's a desire to reinvigorate a space and art helps do that. Space making helps do that. But the idea really with creating public art is that there is a chance for people to insert themselves into it, and that's what I'm hoping happens. If you look at Grove Street Illuminated, that was my first public art project and I think my first goal with that project was that I wanted the artwork to have a space for the person physically and mentally to walk into the artwork and be a part of it. I don't think that's ever left me as a public artist. Now that just seems to be part of the way I think. Maybe I just got lucky with how I started off in public art, but that is a big part of what I'm trying to achieve as an end goal. How I get there might just be kind of gathering up all of those bits and pieces of information and trying to find at least one decent answer.
Is there any advice you could offer somebody looking to become a public artist?
Yeah, come be my intern, I need help. I mean, I think the City of Boise and other public art programs have entry level type projects for people who are interested in getting involved in public art. I know the City of Boise was doing a public art academy, so there was a little bit of training offered like that, but ultimately, I think it is good for artists to sort of try it on for size. It's not for everyone. It sounds great to be able to have this chunk of money and to maybe do something larger that you might not otherwise be able to do just in your studio or in your own practice. But that's actually just a small little part of it. Being a public artist is being a collaborator. You have to be able to listen and take input from a lot of different people and sources and civic entities and organizations. You have to be able to stick with all the meetings and it's a lot different than going into your own little creative bubble in your studio and working. It's really putting yourself much more out there and relying on other people to be part of that collaboration. I think if artists already know that, they can do that. That's wonderful, dive right in. Go for it. Some artists may need to kind of try that part on for size; and starting out with an entry level project is a good way of getting your feet wet. Of course, I never had that opportunity. It was just, dive in headfirst. It was also sort of the timing for me as an emerging artist and Boise putting their public art program together. So all of those things kind of lined up and were serendipitous. I think there's a lot more resources now for artists to try it on for size.
Boise Water Shed Entryway Wall
How important is having a studio space for what you do?
Having a studio space is crucial for me. I feel so incredibly blessed to have the space that I have now. I have space to work on glass, I have space to work on printmaking, I have space to spread out with public art work and documents and plans and drawings. And then I also can reconfigure the space and bring out the ceramic stuff and get the throwing wheels going and so I have a lot of different things that I like to dabble in and I can kind of reconfigure the space for those things or for a larger scale project. I can move things out of the way and have the space to work on something larger. So for me, at this point in my career, it's crucial. My studio spaces or my creative spaces have taken on a lot of different versions over the years. Right out of college I just had a tiny little basement in a duplex I was living in, and it was maybe the size of this table, and that was my creative space, but I had to have that. You have to kind of carve out these little spaces for yourself. I just know that it was always really important to be able to leave my stuff there and come back to it. Having to clear a space off and bring everything back out, every time that you want to work is really challenging as an artist. Being able to just leave it there, walk away, go back home, and then come back in the morning and just pick up that thread where I left off is super, super important for continuity and being able to get something done. I bought a yurt at one point and had a yurt in my backyard as a studio space and that was absolutely wonderful. Very cold and hot in that space. You put up with a lot in order to carve out a creative space for yourself. So this space is absolute heaven, you know, I can have multiple projects going and be able to move around the space from one to the next and put a little input there, work a little bit over here. So it's luxurious.
Why do you think art is important?
I think art is important because it's a way to kind of reach down inside someone and pluck a chord. It's so hard to answer. I think that the world in general can become quite monotonous and almost generic. I think that we've experienced that more and more as we've moved into modern times. Maybe not. I don't know, it's hard to say. But no matter what time and space humans have lived, I think art has always had a very important role to play in keeping that spirit alive of music, of visual art, of dance, of theater. It reaches somewhere inside of us and plucks that chord. It creates that vibration and that frequency that we need to have reminders of constantly that let you know that we're alive and this is a unique experience. This is special. This is a complete miracle. So people say “Oh, to illuminate the human condition.” It's like, okay, I think of that in terms of a deeper sort of soul experience, you know? I think that art reminds one that we're more than just a physicality.
Is there anything you’d like to talk about I haven't asked?
Well, this is a project I've been working on for a couple of years, it started out with sort of smaller groupings of these glass tiles, maybe like in groups of four or six. And I call them slide specimens. The idea is sort of this intersection of science and the cosmos. The idea behind it is like, if I were to sort of space travel and be able to pick up little particles of dust from stars or comets or the sun or the moon, or you know, any other sort of supernova or something like that and then be able to bring it back and put it under the microscope and look at it. So there's sort of this micro and macro aspect to the work. It's sort of like thinking about the universe and the mystery of that, but then analyzing it under a microscope and trying to understand. Trying to get a visual view of what that might look like. So of course, all of this imagery is completely made up by me and the reaction that I'm getting by the process of firing the glass in the kiln and using precious metals like gold and silver or non-precious metals like aluminum. So there's this metallic aspect to it that is also reacting with the glass and creating the imagery in the kiln, which I have no control over. So I sort of help it along and then it does its thing and it comes out completely different every time. I started making these as a very small series and then it's just sort of grown into thinking about this on a larger scale installation. I came across an exhibition a couple of years ago called “Art of the Cosmos” and it was a woman in LA who was putting on the show. NASA was going to be partnering with a sponsorship, it was celebrating the final days of the Hubble Space Telescope; which those images have been very inspiring to me over the years. So I made this big proposal for the show, it was going to have 300-400 of these glass tiles all installed in a large-scale installation and, of course, the show was meant to be on exhibit March of 2020, so that got canceled. I was about halfway through production of all of these tiles so now they're sort of taking on a different meaning. I'm still creating them, but I'm not holding to creating this exact installation anymore. I'm just still making and making and we'll see what they turn into or where they go. A lot of people have shown interest in buying smaller sets of them. So some of that is happening. But anyway, we'll see what happens with it all.
Do you think art is something you’ll ever stop doing?
I will never stop making and creating art. It may change forms. It may change scales. It may change audiences. But no, I have far too many ideas to put out there and to work on. Art will always be part of my life.