Cultivate Plant Adoption Agency, 2008
The Cultivate Plant Adoption Agency set up an office at the Arts Iowa City Gallery on Friday, Aprill 11, 2008. Interested visitors were invited to adopt a prairie seedling and find a permanent home for the plants to live. As part of the adoption process, interested visitors were instructed on proper plant care and then given forms to sign stating that they were responsible for the well being of the plant that they took home with them. Participants were asked to submit pictures of their plants once they were established in their new homes.
The Johnny Appleseed Color Guard, 2008
in collaboration with Jenn Myers, Jill Baker, and Daniel Luchman as the buffalo
American folk-legend Johnny Appleseed walked from Massachusetts to Indiana planting apple orchards in the early 1800s. His final resting place is in Fort Wayne, Indiana. As an artistic action, the Johnny Appleseed Color Guard is reversing Johnny Appleseed's westward frontier movement, traveling instead West to East planting native species where we go. JACG wears burlap dresses in the fashion of Johnny Appleseed, carries flags, pulls a wagon of seedlings and distrubutes these to parade spectators throughout the procession.
On April 26th, the first occasion that the piece was performed, the JACG pulled a cart filled with native wildflower seedlings including purple coneflower, rudbekia (black-eyed susans), and coreopsis. The artists passed out seedlings and engaged the audience in conversations about the project.
The Johnny Appleseed Color Guard at the Indianapolis Museum of Art
Seed Quilt Performance, 2008
handmade cheesecloth quilt embedded with native wildflower seeds
Cultivate/Migrate, 2007
with David Dunlap
Cultivate/Migrate began as an art project centered around creating a community garden in the spring of 2007. Many people participated in the planting of the seeds (at an art opening) and were given a chance to participate in the process of the garden—by tracking their plants online and transferring seedlings to the chosen plot of land. There was no chosen spot for the garden to go at the conception of the project. After choosing a piece of land on the university campus that ultimately didn't work out, the garden became mobile. It traveled to different events and locations around Iowa City during the summer of 2007.
