Artist at Pine Needles Residency
From Aug. 20 to Sept. 9, 2021, I was a guest of The Artist at Pine Needles residency program. Run by the Saint Croix Watershed Research Station which is part of the Science Museum of Minnesota, the residency provided an historic cabin on the St. Croix River just north of Marine-on-Saint-Croix, Minnesota, plus access to the scientists and collections of the research station and museum. The setting provided endless opportunities to capture a diverse range of subject matter, from full landscapes to microscopic life. This gallery will expand as I continue to mine the materials collected at Pine Needles.
GROUP 1: Spore-Scape Series are photographs of the clouds of spores that mushrooms dropped when I placed their caps on card stock and let them settle for a day or two. The slight air currents in the room caused the spores to drift and create filmy shapes. Tiny insects escaping the severed caps left wandering trails.
GROUP 2: Water Life Series are prints created by layering images that were sourced from files at the microscope lab, St. Croix Watershed Research Station (smm.org/scwrs), Marine-on-St. Croix, Minnesota. Most of these images highlight species of cyanobacteria, better known as blue-green algae.
GROUP 3: Mussel Remains I - III are images of mussel shells found on the water's edge of the Saint Croix River and photographed on site. Each of the three images is offered as a single print either with a regular white paper border (set "a") or with the image bleeding to the paper edge (set "b"). The set is also available as a triptych printed on a single sheet.
