Installations

This just in! Spain in February 2012- my Barraca de Vinya installation from 2010 covered in snow, more photos of the work way down this page… thanks to Irene Vendrell for the photo!

Over 275 rings were made with community over the summer of 2011 in Stanley Park coiling English ivy into simple basket bases, these were sewn together into a large form, creating a 3 iteration fractal of our original shape. Much thanks due to Derek Irland for his support in this project and to Penny, Haruko, Janet, Anne, Emily, Rachel, Billy and Maggie for assistance in sewing the form together. This will be reconfigured outside of Science World in May of 2012 in another formation.

Shade Structure and conversation circle at MOP garden

The Coiled River:

Working with invasive English ivy removed from Stanley Park by the Stanley Park Ecology Society approximately 100o people participated in making the Coiled River throughout the month of July 2011. Next summer the work will be a semi-permenant installation outside Science World on the Seawall. It was temporarily installed for the SumerLive concerts this summer, where folks worked on making coils with us deeper coil forms are made to spec for bird houses, chickadees and nuthatches.

New Canoe

Working with Community Arts Council of Vancouver as a part of Arts and Culture week, April 9 and 10, 2011 found us out in the wind and rain building a new structure for the CRAB park pond. Several other were added in as our weather kept being so disagreable! The canoe will come out of the water and go to Granville Island for September 9-18 for the Art IS Land exhibition, and more weaving with community members is planned daily, working in the Marina Works yard.

Using re-purposed green waste such as Cottonwood and vine maple cuttings, a small water craft sculpture was created

Spring Break 2011,

Time spent working with children ages 5-12 at Strathcona Community Centre with a camp organized by The Downtown Eastside Centre for the Arts. It was a great opportunity to play with an idea I have been mulling for some time- creating a tapestry for the birds with seed- I am going to be doing multiple iterations of this project in the coming year with different ages and in different areas, and so far am very pleased with the possibilities and can’t wait to make an elaborate stencil myself, creating a large tapestry of seed then document the birds eating as the table cloth dissappears- stay tuned for that one…. This is all a part of a new direction I seem to be very interested in- eco-tagging as a spin off of urban tagging and guerrilla knitting, my versions are the basket-bombing- making baskets with weeds and seeding for feeding and with nitrogen fixer plants… here are some photos that show the process, see the flickr page for all of the other posted pictures from this group.

making a pattern with leaves

leaf rubbings and stencil cut-work

millet bird seed stencils

seed print

the power of multiples!

October 2010 was spent doing a residency at CACIS in the heart of Catalan Spain.

Learning about the agricultural history of the land, inspired by the “stone wall” evidence of historical human presence on the land, the community connection to the returned grape vines and the barraca de vinyas- small unmortared stone-stack huts for vine workers tool storage that are scattered all over the landscape and the stone terraces that run throughout the pine and oak forests I wove/basket-stitched a barraca de vinya using an invasive vine: Vidalba, and bound rosemary, fennel and verbena- all plentiful on the land. Help from community included local teenagers, and various community members.

My partner in all things, David Gowman joined me for the last few weeks, and together we worked with the grape vines and trunks from a local small farm, where the filed is being switched from grape production to olive production this year. How lucky to have a saw handed to us for helping ourselves to these beautifully espaliered grape vines.

there are lots more photos of my experience at CACIS available on my flickr site by clicking here.

Summer of 2010 has given me the opportunity to work in my own back yard so to speak. Crab Park, where I spend every morning with David and my dog. Working with the Community Arts Council of Vancouver and Vancouver Parks Board I harvested dogwood with community, did invasive species pulls in the marsh pond and created a walking tour of the park with Don Larson, activist and park founder and created installations intended to function as bird habitat with the materials harvested. click on NEST to go directly to the site for this project, or get a sampling of some of my favourite photos below and on the community projects page on this site.

Earth Day 2010, over 50 people from the neighbourhood came out and made 3 large dogwood orbs for the pond area.

woven and dried flag iris ( an invasive)

weaving the memorial fence

I had the honour of stepping out of my own life for a week and working in Troutdale Oregon, crocheting ivy for a sculpture installation.

Ken Colorado, an artist who divides his time between Vancouver and Troutdale invited me to participate in a show called Earth Art that is happening in May. I went down early to make something, and connect with some folks there to see what would come out of it. I did not have a chance to collaborate with the local community for the actual making as much as I had hoped as I was there for such a short time- but did have the realization that my sculpture is community engaged and location specific even by nature of how often the work takes shape in my mind from the conversations that unfold…

When I arrived I met Neil; owner of the old gas station/garage- where I was placed to work for the week as well as install the final piece.

In our initial conversation about the place, I found out Neil’s family has had the property since 1937, and he and his brother worked there as teens pumping gas. The pumps have been gone since 1987 but I could suddenly see the ghost presence of the pumps, added in part by the old ones in view at the general store where we sat. And the intention to recreate some part of that was formed.

: old pump in general store

: old pump in general store

As soon as I arrived Loree helped me to find the ivy that David from Portland had “scouted on line” . (Using Google maps and his learned recognition of the specific green of English ivy, David had judged where best I should go from satellite images- most impressive) Within a few hours of being in town, I had harvested material from the landscape, an action that also served in a small way as an ecological intervention/restoration. I had a studio and installation space to work with, a new friend in the community, and a game plan for what I was making. I had my work cut out for me..

: my home away from home

I do not usually make things that are so object specific- this was sort of an odd departure and given my short turn around time; there was no going back, shifting direction, changing my idea too radically once I began. I did have a few moments of panic, ” what am I doing!” I suspect in time I will like the work, but am still too close to the project to really know. Seeing as how it is up and existing in Troutdale, I figured I may as well post in online too- I can always pull down this post later on if I decide I hate it..

: gas,food,lodging: detail

: gas, food, lodging

: bike rider at gas,food,lodging

Through my week of working there was a constant din of traffic driving by on the old historic highway, when red lights forced a pause in the sound, birdsong took over. Sparrows flitted down and touched my knees while I crocheted ivy; so this piece is for the birds. The top holds birdseed, hence the title; gas, food, lodging….