Sustain(ability) & the Art Studio online Course, Fall 2025
October 18, 2025 - December 20, 2025

DEADLINE September 1, 2024

This will be our seventh course designed exclusively for ecoartspace members that will prepare artists to develop ways of thinking about sustainability in their practice, both conceptually and physically. Participants will learn how to wildcraft art materials, a practice that requires one to deepen their relationship with land, creativity, and self. We will also think critically about how one’s community and ecosystem are vital allies in a time of socio-ecological destabilization.

The first half of the course includes lectures, guest artist talks, resource offerings, and group discussion, as we explore the implications of a bioregional perspective and investigate the function of art today. In the second half of the course, each student will work on their own project, informed by course content (this may include a project already in progress). They will receive feedback from Anna and the class before a final presentation, open to the public.

All classes will be held on Saturdays from 2-4pm ET. The first three sessions will take place over three consecutive weeks, beginning on October 18. The final two classes will take place over two months, giving student time to execute a creative project of their own inspired by course content.

Speakers

Koyoltzintli is an interdisciplinary artist and educator living in Ultser County, New York. She was raised on the Pacific coast and in the Andean mountains of Ecuador. Her work revolves around sound, ancestral technologies, ritual, and storytelling, blending collaborative processes with personal narratives. @koyoltzintli

Nicole Dextras is committed to making art that is completely compostable as an active alternative to plastic and fossil fuels. Her previous material developments include: Willow bark leather, Yucca fibre and fruit peels. The objective of her research is to produce garments that demonstrate and encourage ethical and sustainable futures for the garment industry. @nicoledextras

This online ecoartspace course is taught by Anna Chapman @owl_and_apple

For more information and to sign up, email: info@ecoartspace.org

Call for Artists

NOVEL BODIES
Scientific Art Posters for Society of Environmental Toxicity and Chemistry (SETAC), 46th Meeting, Portland, Oregon 

Conference dates: 16–20 November 2025

Novel Bodies is organized as a parallel visual compendium to traditional scientific posters at the 46th Annual North America SETAC meeting. This year’s conference theme is The Essence of Science: Curiosity, Discovery and Solutions. Scientific abstracts and posters will be organized according to the session tracks (below). This exhibition will be curated by Minal T. Mistry, scientist, artist, and conference committee member from Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and Patricia Watts, founder and curator of ecoartspace.

Twenty visually captivating posters will be selected. Art posters will be displayed alongside those for accepted scientific abstracts. Artists are encouraged to submit a short abstract (250 words) describing their submission to aid the viewer. Viewers will be encouraged to share impressions from the dual poster format in a journal and will be shared with selected artists. In person conference dates: 16–20 November 2025.

• Submission Deadline: 15 October 2025

• Submission Form: https://forms.gle/XAGmoM45Sv11wKxg8 

Background

Society of Environmental Toxicity and Chemistry (SETAC) is the professional organization with the mission to advance environmental science and management. SETAC is dedicated to advancing environmental science and science-informed decision-making through collaboration, communication, education and leadership. It fulfills that purpose through events, publications, awards and education programs. The annual North America meeting draws a couple thousand attendees (may be affected this year due to federal changes).

Guidelines

• Posters should address a topic suitable to SETAC. See below in Session Tracks for focus areas.  

• Posters should stand on their own, telling the research/topical story without a verbal narrative. Artists may submit an optional abstract (250 word max.) as a companion to the poster.

• Poster size: 18 x 24 inches or 24 x 36 inches

• Layout: Horizontal or vertical in either final print size 

• Text should be readable from a minimum five feet away.

• Format: Submit printable PDF of artwork formatted for either of two sizes

• No AI generated submissions please.

For clarification please contact Minal Mistry  (materials.deq at gmail.com)

Conference Session Tracks

1. Environmental Toxicology and Stress Response: Explores environmental toxicology and response to stress (biological, physical and chemical) in various systems. Encompasses in silico and in vitro tools and methods involving adverse outcome pathway (AOP), mode of action, molecular toxicology, -omics, animal alternative testing, quantitative structural activity relationship (QSARs), high-throughput techniques and emerging approaches for statistical toxicology.

2. Aquatic Toxicology, Ecology and Stress Response: Explores ecology, ecotoxicology and response to stress of all aquatic systems, including lentic and lotic freshwater systems, estuaries, coastal and marine environments. 

3. Wildlife Toxicology, Ecology and Stress Response: Covers all life forms of wildlife not strictly aquatic (amphibian, reptiles, birds, mammals and other organisms) living in areas from the deserts to the tropics and everything in between.

4. Chemistry and Exposure Assessment: Comprises all aspects of chemical analysis, monitoring, fate and modeling, green chemistry and alternative chemical assessment.

5. Environmental Risk Assessment: Bridges both aquatic and terrestrial environments, and all potential stressors (physical, chemical, biological and biotechnological) with human and ecological endpoints towards the goal of integrated holistic assessment such as “One Health.” 

6. Engineering, Remediation and Restoration: Addresses remediation and restoration of stressor-impacted air, water, and soil and sediment, including tools for predicting, monitoring and evaluation; technologies and methods for remediation and restoration; environmental engineering; green remediation; damage assessment; and strategies for management.

7. Policy, Management and Communication: Includes all aspects of science application in policy or regulations and management (regulatory science), as well as science communication to stakeholders in diverse audiences.

8. Systems Approaches: Uses cross- and trans-disciplinary approaches seeking to address complexity and large-scale issues by applying and integrating concepts such as life cycle assessment, sustainability, ecosystem services, impact assessment and environmental economics. Topics include regional and watershed-scale environmental management, climate change, resiliency and other related areas

Conference information

KATRINA BELLO | "Lupain (Posoge 1)," 2023 Charcoal and pastel on paper, 53 1/2 x 48 in (135.9 x 121.9 cm).

Terra Madre: Katrina Bello

Carina Evangelista on the work of Katrina Bello. May 30, 2025

Charcoal—in use for human visual expression since 26,000 BCE—is Philippine-born artist Katrina Bello’s preferred medium fortranscribing her response to landscapes she immerses herself in. Exploring the terrain inart residencies in different parts of the U.S. is Bello’s way of finding elemental connections to her adopted country. The haptic—the sense of touch—is ever-present in her process and production. From the earth, dirt, or rocks that she collects or crushes to the charcoal and pastel that she smudges onto paper to create the skeins of lines and the shades of crevices in the tree bark or stone striations that she draws, her hand serves as the medium through which she meditates on what it means to embrace what feels like terra incognita.  

Read full essay here

July 2025 e-Newsletter for subscribers is here

The Sound of Time

Review of TINKUY, SEVEN ACTS FOR THE BEGINNING, END, AND BEGINNING OF TIME

By Irene Lyla Lee

TINKUY, SEVEN ACTS FOR THE BEGINNING, END, AND BEGINNING OF TIME is a performance and exhibit, at Soon Is Now until July 6th, located at The River Center at Long Dock Park in Beacon. A workshop on creating sound objects takes place on June 28th. Register here

Koyoltzintli’s artwork is an aesthetic language informed by the pre-Columbian indigenous traces from Ecuador, the place of her upbringing. Though thoroughly studied, from the Andes to the Amazon, the Ecuadorian coast is largely ignored. Due to this lack of research, objects from long ago remain there. Much of the mountains and forests are threadbare, yet the shores remember a culture whose nearly forgotten stories were colonized. Koyoltzintli delves into the mostly clay objects utilized by the local Chorrera culture (1300–300 BCE). “Rocks hold the ancient memory of the earth,” Koyoltzintli observes. 

Tinkuy is Quechua/Kichwa, meaning “two meetings to produce a third.” After one of her elders passed away, Koyoltzintli visited the “Americas” section of a nearly empty Metropolitan Museum during the pandemic. There she found silence and objects frozen behind glass. Koyoltzintli has made over 100 pieces, some exact replicas of pre-Columbian flutes and some her interpretations based on the geometry of ancient designs specific to what is now Ecuador. 

Rocks hold Tinkuy like a vessel. The performance plays on a loop in the exhibit and broadly illustrates seven ages: The Time of Ether, The Time of Fire, The Time of Water, The Time of Wind/Birds, The Time of Voices, and The Time of the Anthropocene. The sonic performance is assisted by recorded birds, glaciers, and the sound objects exhibited. Performers include Koyoltzintli, Bel Falleiros, Cristina Mejía, Daniel Blake, Ricardo Gallo, dance performed by Mar Parrilla, and Mohawk singer Theresa Bear Fox.  

The Chorrera culture was one of the most sonically sophisticated societies of the ancient world. Many of the objects come from a deep legacy of ritual, healing, and connection. Western science even coincides with the geometry of the objects, like a universal language. Some sound objects use water; some are bowls, flutes, or whistles. Many are shaped like birds or humans. Some have feet. Flecked with mica, a finely layered rock where early bacteria developed, they have a cosmic appearance. One is a dodecahedron, which scientists consider the possible shape of our universe. These sound objects are rounded bodies for wind and water that create a negative, making space for the person or element engaging it. 

At the north end of the exhibit is a beaded, door-like shape of an intuitive vision brought to the artist after collaborating with another musician. A visual manifestation of the third created by an encounter. A democratic value is placed on every measure of time, whether ancient or immediate.

These objects were never made to produce beauty. Sometimes the breath breaks the note, or water pushes air through their tubes to release a lonely call. In The Time of Wind/Birds, the performers use small flutes, feathers, and a boa-like sound object that is Koyoltzintli’s design, inspired by an ancient flute. Koyoltzintli describes how quickly some animals took flight in a world of winds after they emerged from the water. There can be a difficulty in the uncertainty of rhythm or tone, like wind under unsteady wings, a discord that brings awareness. 

 Koyoltzintli says she’s used to sound objects on the floor of her studio, but the wooden displays, which are no more than a foot off the ground, produce the intimacy of a bow, a humble acknowledgment of earth. Aware of negative space throughout the exhibit, Koyoltzintli traces the glyph of a mountain made by the displays, which faces the Hudson River, visible beyond a field, the same direction as the Ecuadorian coast: a continent consolidated into one orientation. Koyoltzintli says the West is a point to reflect and face discomfort. The show implicates us, inviting us to consider our role in environmental disruption, as the performance ends with everyone–performers, and audience–cracking rocks together. These rocks are now suspended against the wall: a visible tension. Sound marks time, and these objects–so specific to the time and place when they were created–also fold time when they are played. Though the performance is over, the echo remains. We continue the music in our lives.

Humans are a small piece of this cacophony. Pieces of black and white Japanese paper lining the exhibit tables honor the mockingbird who serenaded the performers during practice. Looking for new sounds to try, with hope, the mockingbird will practice the music too, replicating the surrounding world.

A microscope view (200x magnification) of a worm in the soils on the farm, ‘Willydah’. Image: Kim V. Goldsmith

the secret sounds of soil, Kim V. Goldsmith

…soils not only speak to us, but can be great subjects for art and music…soils truly are sexy. – Dr David Eldridge

I’ve been purposely listening to the sound of soils for the past three years. It’s been a process of digging into the layers, questioning everything, reading extensively, and creating an attentive listening discipline that demands time, stillness, and an open mind.

Compared to the clear, resonant melody of solo birdsong or a choral dawn chorus, the scritchy scratches, crunchy crackles, gurgles and soft thumps of life beneath our feet are a test to the human ability to tune into life that more often goes unseen, unheard, and unnoticed. It can at first sound like white noise.

In its simplest form, soil is made up of mineral particles, organic matter, water, air and living organisms that slowly and continuously interact with each other. Weathered rock reduced to tiny particles that are moved and manipulated by plants, bacteria, fungi, invertebrates, animals and humans through cycles of growth, decay, and at times, disruption—generating enormous amounts of energy in the process. Sound is part of this energy mix.

Continue reading here

June 2025 e-Newsletter for subscribers is here

Jody Redhage Ferber playing her cello in response to the environment below a cliff

An Aural Nest Tuned to Nature’s Musings:
Jody Redhage Ferber on her process and upcoming concert on May 17th at Montage Music Society in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

Jody Redhage Ferber has developed an expertise in tune with the natural world. Her compositional and performative concepts as a cellist draw directly from her on-site experiences and interactions in nature. A process parallelled by NILS-UDO, a German Environmental Artist, Jody and her quartet will respond to his piece Red Rock Nest from 1998 in an evening of music on May 17th with the Montage Music Society, at Quail Run Clubhouse in Santa Fe, New Mexico at 4pm.

Montage Music Society Ticket Orders 2025 & 2026

Audience at an Ecotones concert with Jody Redhage Ferber and orchestra, photographer Andrea Swenson

On May 17th you will be playing cello alongside two singers and a pianist. What considerations have you taken while preparing this concert and what are you hoping to create in the evening experience?  

On Sunday, May 17, 2025 we’ll perform a full program for two sopranos (Ilana Davidson and Krista River), cello (myself, Jody Redhage Ferber), and piano (Montage Music Society director and founder Debra Ayers). These three musicians with whom I am privileged to collaborate are absolutely world-class and I am honored to have musicians such as these premiere a new work of mine.

This concert will be my first time in Santa Fe. So although this Montage concert wasn’t a chance for me to musically respond to the flora and fauna of Santa Fe, I did chose this particular work of Nils-Udo’s because of a Santa Fe connection: ecoartspace founder & director and current Santa Fe resident Patricia Watts was responsible for commissioning Nils-Udo’s Red Rock Nest in 1998 when she lived in Los Angeles.  

I’ve responded to photographic documentation of Nils-Udo’s piece Red Rock Nest, made in a cave in Topanga Canyon, California (and which ended up existing for 10 days before being dismantled by local residents).  Additionally, as the piece involves vocalists, I’ve chosen a poem by 15th century Indian poet Kabir as lyrics, which intriguingly converge with Nils-Udo’s piece. The program features a variety of nature-themed works for 2 sopranos, cello and piano from a vast span of composers from the baroque, classical, impressionistic, and modern eras. Montage Music director Debra Ayers, sopranos Ilana Davidson and Krista River and I all worked together to program the repertoire.  Along with the premiere of the commission Build a Nest for the Mystery, we'll also perform two of my existing compositions: snow peace calms us, written while I was caught (indoors!) during a blizzard in Vermont, with a sublime poem by Wyoming poet Ella Cvancara as the lyrics; and The Silent Articulation of a Face, in which I have set a Rumi poem (translated by Coleman Barks) as the lyrics--with Rumi encouraging those willing to “dive deeper under, a thousand times deeper” to "hear the green dome's passionated murmur."  

Ecotones concert, photographer Andrea Swenson

You are drawing from such a range of experiences and considerations! As part of Montage Music society with a unique vision for music in response to art: what has informed your process while responding through music to Montage’s environment and art concept?

I characterize my current compositional process as ‘whimsical sonic representation’ of the specific traits, characteristics, design features or the materiality of a chosen nonhuman being or species to which I am creatively responding. With Nils-Udo’s Red Rock Nest, he has crafted a nest out of Arundo donax reeds, and instead of his ubiquitous eggs, he uses citrus fruits that grow in the Topanga canyon area as ‘ovum.’  Nils-Udo’s repeating circular pattern of overlapping donax cuttings and the spherical dimensionality of the citrus led me to choose a time signature of 3/4, to give the piece a rolling, circular feel of three-beat patterning. The entire composition is based on an ostinato (recurring pattern of notes) that swings backs and forth between two tonal centers—sonically reflecting the artists' physical motions of laying the donax twigs overlapping in a circular, unfurling pattern that expands outward like a a fractal expansion, with each twig slightly overlapping the next. I imagine that he began in the center of the nest and expanded by spiraling outward. Similarly in the music, I begin with a simple, pared-down representation of the toggling between these key centers—and as the piece unfurls, I reach to different harmonic destinations that seem blissful or joyful—harmonically reaching a celestial realm where Kabir’s “bird spends the night.”

NILS-UDO, Red Rock Nest, Old Topanga Canyon, California, 1998

As he builds his work, I imagine Nils-Udo embodying the mystery bird of which Kabir speaks— dipping into the realm of ‘no color, no form, no shape, no boundaries—in the shadow thrown by love” as an animating spirit leading him toward his decisions in every moment as his work unfurls. In building this work, he creates a nest for Kabir’s mystery bird—an encouragement for us all to build our own nests.

It was fascinating and somehow very intimate to continually imagine Nils-Udo bending, choosing, collecting, sorting, hiking, balancing, stopping, cutting, placing, balancing, discarding, forming, breathing, thinking, feeling, weighing, & considering as he crafted his piece. All of the artist’s physical movements seemed to take on a rhythm for me—as if my musical imagination was creating a soundtrack for his nature-art-build. And in fact, this responsive process has allowed me to connect the ephemerality of Nils-Udo’s work, Kabir’s focus on the ephemerality of the “mystery” as “no form, no color, no shape, and no boundary,” and the fact that I work in a most ephemeral of artistic mediums: music.

In a number of ways, these topics are an extension of your ongoing project “EcoTones” where  you are also exploring the ‘interrelatedness amongst humans, flora, and fauna.” What are some differences and similarities in approach between the EcoTone and the Montage concerts?  

My ongoing public performance project EcoTones Concerts sites live musicians on trailside stages with a mobile audience in public nature spaces, performing creative acoustic music directly inspired by the flora and fauna surrounding each trailside stage. I partner with entities that manage the land (conservation groups, park nonprofits or other ecology organizations) and I engage in multiple site visits to make field recordings of the nonhuman inhabitants. Each event is specifically designed to celebrate and highlight the nonhuman residents’ unique characteristics, design features, and notable abilities through the music.  

By inviting human performers and audience to a nature space, we are literally creating an ecotone between the human biome and the natural biome of local flora and fauna— encouraging direct engagement with nonhuman beings, and a questioning of the mainstream human perspective of dominance over all other beings. This music is for growing stewardship, humility, and compassion from the humans to the nonhuman members of a local ecosystem. These performances get locals asking questions, shining attention on the chosen nature site, digging deeper into the "personalities" of the local flora and fauna… there are so many layers of intrigue!

Jody, this sounds like a fabulous and one of a kind evening of music you are preparing! I wish I could join and cannot wait to hear all about it from our members who attend!

"Light Bending the World", Montage Music Society Salon Premiere
(Recording of a previous Montage Music Society salon concert in response to the Art of April Gornik, November, 2023)

May 2025 e-Newsletter for subscribers is here

 

Tracy, your work “celebrates the wonder of the natural world and raises awareness about sustainability, plastic reduction” and the protection of nature. How did this become your focus and how has your approach evolved over time?

I have always cared about the environment, but I became invested in upcycled plastic when I was trying to create texture and a distorted grid pattens in my encaustic paintings. The more I worked with plastic, I came to understand how it was repelled by the natural materials I was working with. I also became acutely aware of how much single use plastic was in the environment. As I began to change my lifestyle and reduce my consumption of single use plastic, I realized I could use my artistic platform to spread the message about the dangers of plastic. In addition to my art practice, I have become involved with legislative efforts to reduce plastic packaging in NY State.

The more I read about plastics the more I became concerned about microplastics in the body. When I started the Ubiquitous project in 2022 scientists had found microplastics in every natural environment and in the human body, but they were unclear if microplastics were causing health issues. As of today, microplastics have been found in the brain, heart arteries, lungs, blood, kidneys, livers, intestines, testicles, reproductive organs, joints, bone marrow, breast milk, and placentas of humans. In addition, it is now clear that microplastics are harmful to our health.

Uff… That’s not good for our health! “Ubiquitous” explores this microplastics topic through a multi-media installation with creamy white painted sculptures and cool-toned abstract paintings. How did you decide on materials and techniques? What does your process involve?

After working with upcycled plastics for many years, in 2022, I took the ecoartpace class, Sustainability and the Art Studio, and closely examined my materials, safety practices, supplies, tools and studio practice to determine if I could make my work process more environmentally friendly. My primary material is encaustic paint, which is created from beeswax, damar resin and pigment, which is more environmentally friendly than many art materials. I spoke to R&F Paints, the primary manufacturer of my encaustic paint, and learned that their company is committed to sourcing and producing environmentally friendly practices from their small factory in Kingston, NY. I have discontinued use of all cadmium color encaustic paint, as cadmium can be toxic and only use brushes made of natural materials. I shop locally whenever possible and use upcyled materials in much of my work. In addition, I have improved the ventilation system in my studio and wear a mask when I mix my own paints. In the last few years, I have begun to focus on creating works on paper which use less material, and create a smaller carbon footprint, than creating paintings on panels.

The recent paintings were all painted in colors which embrace the beauty of nature … the blues of the sea and sky, the greens of the earth and trees, and the yellow of the sun. Like the sculptures, the paintings were textured with upcycled plastic. I use upcycled material in my work, because it allows me to spark conversations about sustainability, plastic reduction, and the urgent need to protect the world we inhabit.

I experimented with many color variations for the sculptures in my Ubiquitous installation. My goal for the installation was to bring viewers in with the beauty of the sculptures and then, when they were immersed in the installation, they would come to learn that the sculptures represented microplastics in the body and focus on the shapes and texture of the pieces without getting lost in the color. I landed on the simplicity of the creamy white.

I really appreciate how many factors you consider when creating this work. Beyond your mission and interest, you seem to attend to the viewer and how the pieces live in curated space. Does this awareness come from your varied career background? Has becoming an artist after having other careers informed your approach?

I made a lot of art as a teenager, but I grew up in a family where you went to college to prepare for a career. Studying studio art in college was never something I ever imagined; however, I did take a few art history classes while getting a degree in mass communications and marketing. I worked in art related careers for over 20 years, not only at MoMA and the Guggenheim, but I also worked in advertising, both in the US and overseas. Then, through the years that I was a stay-at-home mom, I took courses at the International Center for Photography and at the New York School for Interior Design. In retrospect, I realize I had been circling the idea of my own art practice for many years without realizing it.

When I was in my 50’s and dealing with some difficult family issues, I was finally brave enough to begin taking classes at the Art Students League of New York and workshops with experienced artists working in encaustic. I had to make myself vulnerable, be willing to challenge myself, and pick myself up when I failed. The time I spent working in museums exposed me to the work of many contemporary artists, gave me a stronger appreciation for curation and showed me how art can be used as an immersive experience.

My non-traditional artistic training has taught me to look deeply at art, to embrace balance, not symmetry, to appreciate scale and size, and to become obsessed with texture. I sometimes wonder how a traditional art school background would have affected my practice. Perhaps I would draw better or would have been further along in my career as an artist. But my winding background has made me who I am today, and I wouldn’t change it. When I studied interior design I took classes in color theory, art history, textiles, and drafting. I use these skills in my work today and they give me better understanding about how work looks in a space. Studying photography taught me about composition and proportion, which are integral to my current work. And I use my marketing and organizational skills from my advertising days in the administrative part of my work.

As for the future of my practice, I am currently developing a series of encaustic monotypes based on the concept of patina. I have learned that patina is not corrosion, but a protective layer that can prevent further deterioration. I am developing the idea that like patina, art can protect us from the negativity in the world around us. I don’t see art as a place to hide, but as a place to pause and find respite, before we head back to fight another day.

Thank you, Tracy! You’ve offered a lot to consider in both message and space.

Featured images (top to bottom): ©Tracy Penn, Ubiquitous, 2024, mixed media and upcycled plastic, installation view, Sandwich, New Hampshire, USA; These Are Days, 2022, encaustic, oil, and upcyled material on panel, 36 x 72 x 1.75, commissioned work; Ubiquitous, 2024, mixed media and upcycled plastic, installation view, Sandwich, New Hampshire USA; Ubiquitous, 2024; portrait of the artist (below).