Artist Initiative
ACHF Arts Access
The artist will prepare to exhibit a collection of work that explores her paper and dye technique in collaboration with community gardeners for a gallery setting that is open to the public. Fuller exploration of natural dyes as a media and colorant will be obtained and documented with the expansion on environmental practices and knowledge of a community. 2: Funds will provide time to prepare, research and seek partners in collaboration. It will further the exploration of plant based media for other artists and expand on environmental aspects. Comments and advice of the gardening collaborators will be collected, documented and published on my blog for others to learn from and at its final presentation, the exhibit will ask for the audience feedback to assess attendance.
Donovan created ten large-scale batik style paintings that use natural dyes made in collaboration with local gardeners. This work will be shown as a solo exhibit. The completed collection of Emily’s paintings and the documentation of her natural dye process visually record the success of this project. The work represents collaboration with the community, a sustainable approach to art-making and the exploration of natural color and dye. Emily created over 50 natural dyes to use in her art and documented the process with photography. She recorded her visits with gardeners, collecting sample swatches of each dye, and noted which dyes where used in each of her paintings. She also found a venue to exhibit the final works and her process that will be presented to the public. 2: Emily shared her knowledge about natural dyes and her growth as an artist, online and in-person, with great responses from the public. Emily kept track of the number of people she visited as well as those who attended her various events and quantified her audience online by web analytics. Over the course of the year, she reached over 300 people in person and learned that her website/blog had over 30,000 visits. Emily found that many are reading her insights on her blog, but had a better exchange in person where people could see the work first-hand. She looks forward to more in-person presentations that allow for question and answer. From this, she will be able to better share the information the public seeks to publish online.