Sustainability has long been part of the practice of artists Karen Boone and Rachel Singel.
Their collective respect and love for nature are on display at “Abide by the answer,” a show up at Louisville Grows’ gallery in Portland.
The title pulls from a quote from the book “Braiding Sweetgrass” by Robin Wall Kimmerer which explores indigenous practices honoring the environment alongside the science of sustainability.
“Having the show is, I think, such an important way of creating conversation into the fact that sustainable art making I think is just critical to our future,” said Singel, who works mainly in printmaking. “I think it's just one of the only ways we can continue as artists.”
Singel began making her own paper from invasive plant species to curb the amount of paper waste she produces when making prints.
She also employs water-based inks in her work as much as possible. At her print shop, she sees firsthand the chemical and environmental outputs of her work.
“As a printmaker, using chemicals, especially as an undergrad and grad, it is toxic, and it is bad, not only for the environment, for one's health, and I don't want my students exposed to that,” Singel, who is also a professor at the University of Louisville, said.
Like Singel, Karen Boone, her co-exhibitor at “Abide by the answer,” has tried to weave sustainability into her craft through subject and material.
“I forage for a lot of my own clay, and usually it's like red or yellow ochre, and I use charred wood, and I like to mix those I grind into pestle [and] mortar, and then I mix them with walnut oil to create oil paint,” Boone said.
For Boone, a lifelong lover of nature, going out to collect her materials, while time-consuming, brings her closer to her work.
“I know when I've really poured my heart and literally blood, sweat and tears … to make this happen at times,” Boone said. “It's like there's something in that that I think brings me closer to the piece, and that I hope someone else feels that.”
A curatorial and design studio called Kudzu Jelly, led by Lindsey Cummins and El Bruner, curated the show.
“We have been talking with [Singel] and [Boone] about their work and about showing it,” Cummins said. “So when Louisville Grows, you know, decided that they wanted to do shows, it was just the perfect pair because both artists are really thinking about their relationship to the natural world and to the environment and their process in their work.”
Louisville Grows focuses on planting trees and restoring tree canopies in Louisville and Southern Indiana to curb the existence of urban heat islands.
Having works that focus on sustainability at an organization that is about creating healthier, greener environments was a no-brainer for the Kudzu Jelly team.
The exhibit expanded beyond the gallery setup with multiple events.
Louisville Grows hosted events where attendees could learn from Boone and Singel how to make their own naturally sourced pigments and paper.
“We've really tried to incorporate things that also underlie that sense of process in the work, and also just things that invite the community to come in and experience the work,” Cummins said.
Cummins said the unconventional gallery space has also added to bringing the community in to talk about an important topic.
“There's a life in this space that I think it's really exciting to me to put work in spaces where I know the community is already there, and they're going to be interacting with the work,” Cummins said. “And it's people who maybe not, who maybe wouldn't wander into an art gallery, but they're going to be exposed to the work here.”
“Abide by the answer” is open through Dec. 31 at Louisville Grows in Portland.
