Tree Talk: Artists Speak For Trees
Thursday, February 25
10am PT, 11am MT, 12pm CT, 1pm ET
EUROPE: Scotland/Ireland/England: 18:00 GMT, Belgium/Germany/Spain: 19:00 UTC
Freyja Bardell, Kristin Jones, Jill Lear, Chris Manfield
The beauty and mystery of trees has long been a subject for artists, and more recently, concern for the survival of forests (the lungs of our planet) has been paramount. Each month, artists working in a diversity of media share their artworks and ideas about these most essential and extraordinary living beings. Additionally, guest speakers including scientists, writers and activists are invited to present their work and contribute to the dialogue.
Tree Talk is moderated by Sant Khalsa, ecofeminist artist and activist, whose work has focused on critical environmental and societal issues including forests and watersheds for four decades.
Co-sponsored by Joshua Tree Center for Photographic Arts
Members and one guest are free. General Public can attend for a $10. Capacity is 100 participants. All participants MUST REGISTER.
Member Presenters:
Freyja Bardell, a multimedia installation artist, will discuss three projects that focus on trees. Her project Climate Clock, a partnership with the UC Berkeley Blue Oak Ranch Reserve and City of San Jose; The Blue Tree Project, a public art commission at CSUSB; and a sculpture of a Baobab tree, commissioned by Beyonce for her film Black Is King. Each project forges a connection to a specific tree or forest through themes of loss, life cycle, spirituality and survival.
Freyja Bardell creates site specific installations that respond to social and environmental issues. She studied environmental science in the UK and worked as an environmental educator before moving to Los Angeles in 2001. Here she was introduced to the film industry, becoming an art director and set designer for musicians and indie filmmakers. In 2005 she co-founded Greenmeme, an interdisciplinary public practice that explores themes of environmental and cultural stewardship through a process of community engagement. Greenmeme has permanent and temporary pieces throughout the USA. greenmeme.com
Image: ©Freyja Bardell, Tree Of Life, 2019, unbleached cotton rope, tree branches, 12 x 12 x 6 feet
Kristin Jones will share her working process on her ongoing work BEHOLD, a cross-disciplinary project aimed at celebrating iconic urban trees by merging science, art, environmentalism and technology to visualize the complex invisible natural systems at work beneath their bark. Her goal is to foster a public platform in the form of a free, augmented reality experience, that can engage a broad audience and encourage environmental stewardship.
Jones works collaboratively across disciplines, to awaken a sense of time and place in the public domain. The work involves considerable research and team building. Jones dedicated the past twenty years creating ephemeral projects inspired by the history of Rome choreographing a treasury of artists on the Tiber River. www.eternaltiber.net. Jones is the winner of three Fulbright Fellowships and is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome. She is based in NYC. kristinandreajones.com
Image: ©Kristin Jones, BEHOLD, English Elm, Washington Square Park, photo collage towards data visualization of a living tree, 2012 - ongoing
Jill Lear will begin with a brief outline of the premise for her current body of work: Urban Sprawl: Trees in Cities, followed by a tour of her favorite trees with photos, artwork and history of each one. Lear is a painter whose trees in the landscape are a means of transcribing not only the experience of being in, and thinking about, Nature, but also the way in which we process the world around us. Lear’s large-scale works on paper have been exhibited in New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Dallas, Austin and Los Angeles. She trained at the New York Studio School and has a B.A. from Southern Methodist University, Dallas.
jilllear.com
Image: ©Jill Lear, 30° 00' 17" N 90° 46' 34.0" W Oak Alley Plantation Oak I, 2019, charcoal, acrylic, watercolor, Japanese paper on paper, 22 inches x 22 inches
Chris Manfield will be sharing a story about his relationship with the sequoia trees and pyrogenic ecosystem through a series of photographs and prints which had been selected from his work. He will discuss his creative process in the making of some of his most peculiar prints and the inspirations behind them while attempting to pluck the interwoven strings between family, trees, fire and politics based on his personal experiences and research.
Manfield was born in Bandung, Jawa Barat, Indonesia in 1994. He graduated with his BFA from San Francisco Art Institute in 2018. He's been an active member of his community through his engagement within the art, education, and environmental activism. In 2020, his work was recognized through the John Collier Award which is dedicated to photographers whose work addresses issues of anthropological and social significance. chrismanfield.com
Image: ©Chris Manfield, Portrait of Sequoia, 2021, charred bark and human hair on paper, 8 x 10 inches
