Individual Artist Project

The Invasives Project is a visually creative way to inform others about invasive plants in our community and provides people with a tool to help support the healthy landscapes we'd like to live in. In printing local blooms, this project will create a resource for my community to help identify invasive species in their backyard and give guidance on what to do with these invasives. As my community understands and can identify species in our landscape, we can help grow the environment we'd like to live in together, mitigating harm caused by noxious species and fostering more vulnerable native species. In printing these plants, I'll also be giving space to those who have a complicated relationship with invasives and have come to love the tansy and oxeye daisy, but who also see these species harming other delicate plants. The project is multi-faceted (an art show, tabling and using the prints to educate at Carlton SWCD's native plant sale, a nature walk, and a free pamphlet) to expand who engages with the art. All are welcome to the community nature center for the show to visually see artistic renderings of local invasives. All ages are welcome on the nature walk, to see, feel, touch, and smell invasives in our landscapes. All will have free access to the pamphlet throughout different parts of Duluth or online. And hopefully, all will gain a greater understanding of how to care for our community's flora. ; The goal of this project is to use printmaking to create new prints that engage the community in a dialogue about invasive species and offer community members knowledge they need to care for our environment. This project will create a new body of work, allowing me to expand the subject of my prints from broad local landscapes to focused local flora. As I'm still getting to know the Twin Ports area, this project will expand my network as I utilize different entities to help me learn about invasives and make a plan for mitigating them. I'm most excited about offering multiple opportunities and forms of engagement to bring people together around art and nature; in doing so, my art will be reaching new community members and new champions of my work. In the past years, I have demonstrated my ability to complete projects. In Nov 2021, I participated in an artist residency for 14 days creating 9 new prints that became the basis of a solo show in June of 2022 in New Ulm, MN. In Mar/Apr of 2021, I printed 500 postcards to create 250 packets distributed throughout the US (via USPS and local sites). I worked ahead of my schedule and finished distributing the postcards by June. From Mar-Dec 2020 I successfully managed my time to create 30+ new prints at night while also caring for my two children during the day. In Feb 2020, I printed and created 100 postcards (which included adhering rice paper to bristol board and adding a handwritten quote for each postcard) for a TRIO (a federal program funded under Title IV) conference. I was able to complete this task in two weeks. I dedicate time daily to my practice in the evening after children are asleep; these smaller chunks of time working on my art are a mighty force of production. ; I'll consider this project successful if: -10-15 new original images 5?x7? to 6?x9? are carved and hand-printed -The prints are shown at an art show (most likely at Hartley Nature Center, June 2025) -I've met with experts on invasive species and gathered their input to help create a pamphlet on invasive species, using the new prints -I've created a pamphlet that offers guidance in lessening the harm of invasive species, have commercially printed it, and distributed it in the community in three separate locations -The pamphlet is available online as a free PDF -I engage community members in a hike with families to identify invasive species at Hartley -I engage community members in June 2025 by tabling at the Carlton County Natives Plant Sale, sharing my invasive species prints and distributing the pamphlets