Public Art COmmissions

Thank you, Carolyn Bates for including my public art in your publications on the Street Murals of Burlington!

I welcome and appreciate opportunities to make public art that my community can enjoy and connect to! Below are some examples in the Burlington Area of Vermont.

Deep Ecology

DEEP ECOLOGY was painted in the Summer of 2022. King Street Laundry’s new owners wanted to make a big change in their community. I was grateful to a be a part of brightening up this Burlington neighborhood. Read the news article here.

Deep Ecology Artist Statement

This piece is a study of our deep and shared ecology in Vermont, an invitation to consider our relationship to the perceived other. Our human infrastructure, systems and social networks are not separate, but a part of the shared environment of our land and waterways. Similarly, our patterns of behavior and relationships can sometimes mirror what occurs in the natural world. As a practitioner of biomimicry, I often ask questions like “How does the natural world solve this type of challenge?” when seeking inspiration to design interventions for social change. 

Deep Ecology challenges the notions of invasive vs native and the human values and emotions we attach to those labels. Our perceptions and biases color our world and often determine how we relate to one another in community. Historically, these perceptions of the other have led to deep harms like colonization, cultural erasures, and a loss of biodiversity on every level. 

In Vermont, we are observing the way our meadows are negotiating space between the native plants and the Poison Parsnip, reckoning with our unjust history of both genocide and ethnocide of the Abenaki people, and developing systems and gestures of welcome (or lack thereof) for New Americans. This piece is not an answer or a solution, but rather an observation, commentary, and living question for our communities to consider: 

With compassion for the other and the all, 

an expanded view of the largest scale of time,

considering the evolution of our planet’s rhythms and patterns of finding balance when one species or another overtakes the equilibrium of the ecosystem, and without wiping out or demonizing one another, 

How might we find a social balance that honors our unique diversity and makes space for all forms of life in our communities?

This musical mural was created to cover and abate graffiti on a corner building in Burlington Vermont, but that is no easy task! This community has rallied around this mural and has helped me paint, clean, and restore it after being tagged 3 times so far!

Below are commissioned murals on view in Winooski, Vermont just a short scenic walk from one another. The Winooski Wings are an interactive and inspirational piece created and installed during the COVID19 Pandemic. The Winooski Timeline is a community-made art piece created in partnership with ArtSoWonderful and the City of Winooski. The mural describes the history of the city and ends with a photo opportunity for onlookers to join into the city’s ongoing story. Both public pieces were created with the intention of beautifying, uplifting, and unifying the vibrant and diverse ‘Land of the Wild Onion.”

WINOOSKI WINGS

This interactive piece is located on the east side of the City Lights building, facing the river in Winooski, Vermont. Step up and see your self #RiseAbove and take wing towards your best self! #WinooskiWings

WINOOSKI Riverwalk Mural

This mural was updated recently after a few years of harsh weather and a need for a vibrant new look! Underneath this new top coat, was my original visual timeline of Winooski’s history begins with the earliest evidence of human life in the region (native people’s projectile points) and ends with a photo-op celebrating the community members of Winooski today who helped create this mural together! You can visit mural beneath the Winooski Bridge along the beautiful and scenic riverwalk.

Contact ArtsSoWonderful for more information about community art projects like this one and enjoy this video of the Winooski Timeline Mural in the making!