INK: The Color of Manitoga
2018 Artist Residency at Manitoga
I was invited to the 2018 Artist Residency Program at Manitoga: the estate and home of industrial designer Russel Wright (1904-1976). The concept was to create natural inks from plant specimens I collect in Manitoga’s acres of woodland garden. From the color inks, a series of paintings evolved.I employed my technical skills to create a visually compelling Lab within the main house west gallery. There, I experimented and made natural inks with distilled water from Manitoga’s Quarry Pool. A large-scale map plotted the collecting points over the property’s seventy-five acres, and a journal recorded dates, times and the changing seasons. Visitors were invited into the Lab to experience the physical transformation from actual landscape to paintings. The project lies at the intersection of art and record keeping, science and nature, ideas and handcraft – moving between the tangible and the conceptual.