I am honored to be joining Kathleen Dean Moore, an essayist whose writings have helped shape my thinking about art and the natural world, and poet Charles Goodrich in conversation at Oregon State University on Monday, February 20th. the If you are in the area, the conversation will take place from 4-5:30pm in the MU Journey Room on the OSU campus.

The program is a joint presentation from the Oregon State Honors College and the Spring Creek Project. I'm particularly excited to be involved with the Spring Creek Project, whose mission is, "To bring together the practical wisdom of the environmental sciences, the clarity of philosophical analysis, and the creative, expressive power of the written word, to find new ways to understand and re-imagine our relation to the natural world."

I am excited to be a part of what is bound to be a thoughtful and moving exhibition at Root Division this July. I am currently working diligently on a new hand-drawn animation for the show! See the exhibition details below:

A Live Animal
OPENING RECEPTION: July 9, 2011, 7-10pm
AN EVENING OF PRESENTATION AND PERFORMANCE @ ODC THEATER:
July 19, 7:30-9:30pm, 2011
Curated by Selene Foster and Christopher Reiger

“We are human only in contact, and conviviality, with what is not human." - David Abram

On psychic and cellular levels, what exactly occurs when a human interacts with another animal species? Despite our growing knowledge of biology and natural history, the answer remains something of a mystery. The 24 artists participating in A Live Animal consider such interspecific exchange, be it scientific, emotional, spiritual, or otherwise.

In his landmark essay collection Art As Experience, John Dewey writes “To grasp the sources of aesthetic experience it is [...] necessary to have recourse to animal life below the human scale. [...] The live animal is fully present, all there, in all of its actions: in its wary glances, its sharp sniffings, its abrupt cocking of ears.” Dewey's "live animal" exists in all of us, but is generally unacknowledged or denied. The proliferation of animal imagery in the arts, however, suggests that other species have much to teach us about our own nature.

There are those who would have us believe it is possible to exist in an Edenic reality where humans and other species live together in peace. Others would have us come to terms with our predatory nature and embrace our propensity for violence. The truth is more complex than either of those perspectives allow. Nonetheless, both speak to contemporary society’s grappling with the existential question, “How should we conceive of and conduct our relationships with other species, and also with one another?"

Surveyed as a whole, the artworks in A Live Animal reflect our inadequate understanding of how best to exist as part of a living, breathing, sensate environment. Individually, however, the works invite us to consider other species through a variety of lenses - mystical, scientific, and philosophical - and to formulate our own approaches to the "animal other." They challenge us to consider the “aesthetic experience” of Dewey's "live animal," one of genuine (if not necessarily sentimental) affinity with all states of being, in light of our current struggle to balance the interests of all parties, be they scaled, furred, feathered, or naked.

Artists:
Brandon Ballengee, Jeremiah Barber*, Joianne Bittle, Bethany Carlson, Karl Cronin, Donald Farnsworth, Todd Forsgren, Dana Harel, Nicole Jean Hill, Michael Kerbow, Anne Klint, Maria Lux, Jon Rappleye, Shelley Reed, Steven Rubin, Susan Silas, Deborah Simon, Sarah A. Smith, Kate Stirr*, Youngsuk Suh, Ryan Thompson, James Wendell, Gail Wight, and work from the Endangered Species Print Project
*Root Division Resident Artist

Opening Reception: Saturday, July 9, 7 to 10 pm
Exhibition Dates: July 7 - 30, 2011
Gallery Hours: Wednesdays - Saturdays, 2-6 pm (or by appointment)

An Evening of Presentation and Performances @ ODC Theater
July 19, 2011, 7:30-9:30PM
Suggested donation

Chris Black, choreographer: "Extinction Burst (last dance, last chance): A reanimation of lost movement"
Karl Cronin, artist: "Kinetic Empathy"
Jeremiah Jenkins, artist: "The Hunt"
Georgeann O'Brien, Ph.D.: "Direct observation of sensory neuron regeneration in live zebrafish"
Brian Null, Ph.D., "Examination of Animals, Examination of Self"
Christopher Reiger: "Introducing the Endangered Spcies Print Project"
Jon Sack, Ph.D., Researcher, UC Davis College of Biological Sciences: "Bioelectric Venom"
Gail Wight, Professor and Director of Graduate Art Studies, Stanford University, artist: "Animal Animosity"
Philip Ross, artist: "Eating Bugs for Fun and For Profit"

I will be participating in a three-person exhibition open March 5th at the Marin MOCA in Novato, CA. The opening reception will be held on March 12 Curated by Kathryn Weller Renfrow, the show features my new sea creature work alongside work by Owen Schuh and John Ruszel. Details are available on the Marin MOCA website!

Together with Marisa McCarthy and Ryan Jones, I am curating a show for Root Division about artists responding to the environmental impact of artmaking through creating works that have a neutral or positive impact on the environment.

Manufactured Organic opening reception March 12th at Root Division in San Francisco!