Previous applications
A recent submission that made me reflect on what I’ve been up to..
The innovation statement (400 words or less) should describe how your work is innovative. Consider how your work is developed, experiments with new ideas, takes risks, and/or pushes the boundaries of your discipline. Please contextualize how your work is innovative within your field.
Innovation in my work emerges through material experimentation and spatial thinking. I extend painting beyond the wall by constructing lightweight sculptural forms from materials traditionally associated with painting like canvas and linen, which I cut, suspend, stretch, and paint. These hybrid structures blur distinctions between two-dimensional painting and three-dimensional sculpture, functioning as three-dimensional paintings. Many of my works exist as multi-part installations, with one element resting on the ground and another suspended, creating a dialogue between earth and sky. Pushing the boundaries of painting through experimentation is central to my practice, and I actively seek knowledge beyond the traditional art studio. While developing new ideas for my ArtsWA public art commission, I met with a local boat builder to learn about marine adhesives and traveled to Spokane to experiment with a violin maker. Together we tested ways to stiffen fabric, ultimately innovating a technique that combines metal boning, stitching, bias tape, and fabric stiffener. Additionally, at the risk of failure, I have developed a mixed-media process using resin, plaster, metal, and paint on paper to create works I call Sea Jellies. This is a body of work I plan to expand if selected for Surge at the Museum of Northwest Art, an exhibition pairing artists with scientists. Increasingly, my installations investigate ecological questions. Inspired by rewilding efforts like planting Miyawaki forests (tiny forests) and coastal restoration, I am developing sculptural paintings that explore the role of large woody debris in creating habitat in tidelands. I’m innovating by adding lightbulbs and ceramics to help tell this story. By combining experimental materials and collaborating with experts across fields, my practice expands painting into immersive, educational installations. I plan to innovate in outdoor sculpture as well through wire and concrete that mark the sites of young Miyawaki forests in Seattle. These tiny forests are significant in urban environmental regeneration. My sculptures would offer visual impact during the forests’ early years when plants are just twigs. This would be art that draws attention to, anticipates, announces, and welcomes new life. At its core, my work takes risks to serve themes of connection. It grows from a desire to bridge inner and outer worlds; parts of the self; and the self and the natural world. My hope is that these innovations provide spaces for viewers to daydream, imagine relationships with the living world, and tell their own stories about the spaces they discover within it.
The impact statement (150 words or less) explains how this award will make a difference for you. What will the funding and recognition do for you, your work, and your practice? How will you use the money? How will receiving this award impact your field and community?
Receiving the Artist Innovator Award would allow me to develop an outdoor sculpture project that would merge my artistic practice with environmental action of rewilding, both passions of mine. The impact of this award would be twofold. It would enable me with resources to experiment with outdoor sculpture and it would draw attention the power of pocket forests through the language art. I want to use art as a means to attract focus and participants to rewilding efforts in south seattle. With funding, I can collaborate with the local Miyawaki groups I know to sponsor pocket forest sites and create art that connects people to the natural world. Cross pollinating art and activism allows me to communicate with a broader cross section of people and specifically gives people access to art outside of gallery walls. This allows my field of painting and sculpture to belong to the community at large.