Between 2023-24, I collaborated with the Evergreen Conservancy on a site-specific painting-installation. I made paper using egg cartons sourced via my local Buy Nothing group and embedded the paper with milkweed seeds. In August 2024, I led a plein air painting workshop at Tacoma AMD, the site managed by Evergreen Conservancy. Residents of Indiana, PA spent an afternoon painting on the seed paper and learning about the wetlands that filter iron oxide out of local waterways. Their paintings were then installed on the grounds of Tacoma AMD and buried. We await next Fall, where we hope milkweeds will take their place.

This project was made possible by the Art & Change grant from the Leeway Foundation.

Photographs by Ray Bailey.

Making still-lives out from flowers found in C's garden.
Still-lives and a rambunctious elder cat.
Making an ink painting as an example.
Talking about Chinese landscape painting with participants.
Participants painting with sumi ink.
C explaining how iron oxide is collected at Tanoma AMD.
Painting in the Monarch Waystation. We hope the milkweeds will attract monarch butterflies on their migration route to Mexico!
Installing the biodegradable paintings.
Our paintings at Tanoma AMD in Indiana, PA.
Detail shot #1
Detail shot #2
Installing the paintings.
Final installation of all the paintings.
Burying the paintings.
Watering the paintings and waiting.
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I Saw It In My Nightmares