WATER RIGHTS RESIDENCY
SANTA FE ART INSTITUTE
MAY 2017
I was nominated to spend a month at SFAI as one of the artists investigating the local water
scene through community engagement. Plan A: The Santa Fe Watershed Association has an "Arroyo Rats" program in which teens volunteer to collect trash that accumulates in the tributary basins of the Santa Fe River. I had proposed a "trash to art" competition to generate more interest and activity. Nice thought. However, the program only functioned at indeterminate intervals and they were not inclined to extra organizing.
Plan B: Turns out there was a lot to investigate in a water-conscious environment. I started at the head of the watershed in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and worked my way downstream to the area where the
river broadens into a marsh. I spoke with politicians, business operators, policy makers, other artists, the Catholic clergy, local historians, beavers, conservationists, landscape architects, wastewater plant managers, and so on. The outcome was a daily journal of 30 image-text pieces. I donated a print version to the Reading Room at SFAI. Six random samples on view here. Digital copies available on request.
SANTA FE ART INSTITUTE
MAY 2017
I was nominated to spend a month at SFAI as one of the artists investigating the local water
scene through community engagement. Plan A: The Santa Fe Watershed Association has an "Arroyo Rats" program in which teens volunteer to collect trash that accumulates in the tributary basins of the Santa Fe River. I had proposed a "trash to art" competition to generate more interest and activity. Nice thought. However, the program only functioned at indeterminate intervals and they were not inclined to extra organizing.
Plan B: Turns out there was a lot to investigate in a water-conscious environment. I started at the head of the watershed in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and worked my way downstream to the area where the
river broadens into a marsh. I spoke with politicians, business operators, policy makers, other artists, the Catholic clergy, local historians, beavers, conservationists, landscape architects, wastewater plant managers, and so on. The outcome was a daily journal of 30 image-text pieces. I donated a print version to the Reading Room at SFAI. Six random samples on view here. Digital copies available on request.