Thank You
Below is a list of individuals and companies which are in some way financially supporting me through this creative endeavor. If you would like to partner with me to support this work, email me.
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Janet Tapper Todd Cowing Anonymous Pippin Christianson
John Hanron Michael Wille Smash Alley Anonymous Rachel Pass Anonymous Anonymous Anonymous Anonymous Garden Spot Wayne Berry Leaf and Ladle |
Bellingham Pollinator
I am a Bellingham artist undertaking one year (12 one-month art projects) of installation work where I will be installing small pieces in big places in Bellingham, WA
My organizing central concept is that the way we treat ourselves is predictive of how we will treat our environment. I have come to see that the way we define our humanity is somewhat parasitic. As a whole, value is based on ownership, control, and power-how much we have and how much we can exert. Violence and aggression are seen as strengths. Empathy and compassion are considered weaknesses. The American Dream is about ownership.
It is my intention to set small objects in large environment to comment on awareness, our ability to be present in a space, in a community, and in our own skin. How often do we miss the environment we move through without appreciating it? These pieces that I am installing beg for consideration, for touch, for appreciation. They are subtle echoes of the calls that come from within each of us.
It is my hope that with each project, participants might consider how they take up space and how they might stop to consider their own environment. That they might stop to consider, seriously and with compassion, themselves.
There will be a short film for each month's installation. Below are some preliminary stills. The films will be released the following month to blog subscribers only. You can subscribe here.
January: Pollination Stones, Whatcom Falls Park
On January 16th I placed 100 Pollination Stones along the trails of Whatcom Falls Park in Bellingham, WA. These stones have QR codes attached to them so that people will be directed to this page. The stones are colorful with small images of pollinators on them. They are meant to create a dialogue around the human predicament of self-abuse and social competition for status, wealth, and material possessions. The concept delineates a clear line between the way humans treat themselves and each other and the way we treat the planet and its inhabitants. There will be no saving the human race because our social construct trains us into self-destruction. Until we begin to start having more compassion, empathy and love for each other and ourselves, there will be no future and no hope for the human race and many of the species with whom we share the earth. Until we start seeing our trained attitudes around competition and violence as the root of our ecological blindness, we will continue to pollute, exploit and poison the planet until it is no longer inhabitable by the human race. The blog where I will write weekly about this and the other installations I am creating this year is on Substack.
February: Home tags, York Neighborhood
On February 13th, I will be hanging Home is Where the Heart is ceramic tags on the telephone poles in the York neighborhood. I am doing this while wearing a bee costume. I am including a QR code on these pieces that will lead participants to the Homes Now website, where they can donate and read about the tiny houses the organization builds for folks without shelter in Bellingham, WA. These tags are meant to be a metaphor; they are shaped like luggage tags as well as homes, and within the ceramic home shape is a heart made by two thumb prints and glazed in different colors. The overarching goal of this year-long project is to create a body of work that participants can interact with if they are aware of their surroundings and notice the small art in a large space. It is my aim to create a sacredness to the interaction in that I am using such small work to make an energetic dent in an otherwise ordinary environment. That I am installing the work in this particular neighborhood is pointed; it was one of the first recognized neighborhoods in Bellingham, and while quite a bit of gentrification has happened all over the city as people have moved in and changed the nature and character of a lot of the housing, the York neighborhood has remained largely unscathed and untouched by commercial influence. The neighborhood has retained much of its character and is very much a blue collar neighborhood, full of small houses on small lots.
March: Seed Bombs, The Portal Container Village
On March 13th, I installed 100 seed bombs at the Portal Container Village. March is about peace; what it means, why it's scarce, and how we might be able to work toward it.
I grew up in a house of rage. My mother was always yelling, and very often, for no apparent reason. My father, for his part, would also yell, as well as throw the occasional chair or end table. There was never any physical violence, but the violence I experienced on a regular basis formed my world view. I grew up with this type of violent energy coursing through my veins, and for many years, I was known as "angry Sara". No one who knows me now recognizes this in me, which is due to my decades-long work to find the peaceful core within me. This work, along with many hours of studying the writings of Thich Nhat Hanh, has led me to the belief that we cannot have a peaceful society of violent individuals, so in order to bring peace to the society, each individual must work towards a peaceful existence and perspective.
The seed bombs I have hung in the very young trees around the square draw a clear line between the violence humans do to ourselves, each other, and the environment. We will not learn to treat the land and its people with compassion if we are not first showing ourselves that compassion. We cannot have peace in a violent society, because our violence manifests itself in the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the land we inhabit. Evidence of our violence is everywhere- we are choking on it.
The skirts on the bombs invite the participants to "rip off her dress and throw her" in order to spread the wildflower seeds within them. Each skirt also has a "you are here" symbol stamped upon it in red ink, a hopeful note that the participant might wake up to where they are in the world and the impact they have.
I grew up in a house of rage. My mother was always yelling, and very often, for no apparent reason. My father, for his part, would also yell, as well as throw the occasional chair or end table. There was never any physical violence, but the violence I experienced on a regular basis formed my world view. I grew up with this type of violent energy coursing through my veins, and for many years, I was known as "angry Sara". No one who knows me now recognizes this in me, which is due to my decades-long work to find the peaceful core within me. This work, along with many hours of studying the writings of Thich Nhat Hanh, has led me to the belief that we cannot have a peaceful society of violent individuals, so in order to bring peace to the society, each individual must work towards a peaceful existence and perspective.
The seed bombs I have hung in the very young trees around the square draw a clear line between the violence humans do to ourselves, each other, and the environment. We will not learn to treat the land and its people with compassion if we are not first showing ourselves that compassion. We cannot have peace in a violent society, because our violence manifests itself in the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the land we inhabit. Evidence of our violence is everywhere- we are choking on it.
The skirts on the bombs invite the participants to "rip off her dress and throw her" in order to spread the wildflower seeds within them. Each skirt also has a "you are here" symbol stamped upon it in red ink, a hopeful note that the participant might wake up to where they are in the world and the impact they have.
April: Love Poems and Felted Hearts, WWU Campus
On April 22nd, Earth Day, I handed out a love poem and a hand-felted wool heart to students on the WWU campus. I had changed my project plan once I realized that painting plastic bottles as an art installation was not heart-centered, and in fact, felt like scolding, which is the opposite of what the aim of this project is, which is to teach or inspire awareness so that people are more inspired to care for themselves and for the world. I started handing the art out at Boulevard park, but for some reason, the people there did not seem too impressed by a giant bee. In fact, most of the people ignored me. So I went to WWU and interacted with the students there. It was a wonderful experience and one that is pushing me to reconsider making performance a larger element in the project.
May Flowers: The Bellingham Farmers Market
On May 25th, my twin brother and I went to the Bellingham Farmer's Market and handed out handmade flowers dressed as Bees. The flowers represent hope, and the stem has two flowers; one which is lily-like and one that is daisy-like. The Daisy is made of a map of a place in the world for the petals and in the center, a small, circular mirror. This piece of art also has a leaf on the lower stem, made from paper bag, and imprinted with YOU ARE HERE on one side of the leaf and a QR code on the other. As with all the work in this project, the art object is created to inspire self-awareness, self acceptance, and hopefully, self love.
There has been a definite shift in the project where, instead of creating an installation space, we are creating a number of interactions that are meant to delight, surprise, and enliven the environment in which we walk around. My great love for Bellingham and my background in performance and interactive art have come together to activate the streets of Bellingham and surprise people as they move through the city.
I have also taken to walking down busy streets such as Holly, Ellis, and State street as the bee, while handing out stickers and telling people to have a nice day. I have found this to be profoundly inspiring, and I have received many messages and gifts of thanks from the people I run into. This project is becoming more than I thought it could be, and as it hits the half-way mark in June, I am excited to see how it evolves.
There has been a definite shift in the project where, instead of creating an installation space, we are creating a number of interactions that are meant to delight, surprise, and enliven the environment in which we walk around. My great love for Bellingham and my background in performance and interactive art have come together to activate the streets of Bellingham and surprise people as they move through the city.
I have also taken to walking down busy streets such as Holly, Ellis, and State street as the bee, while handing out stickers and telling people to have a nice day. I have found this to be profoundly inspiring, and I have received many messages and gifts of thanks from the people I run into. This project is becoming more than I thought it could be, and as it hits the half-way mark in June, I am excited to see how it evolves.
June Butterflies, Bellingham Farmers Market and El Suenito Pride Market
On June 8th and 29th, my brother and I handed out origami butterflies. We decided that the markets are the best places to hand out art because there are more families walking around and the atmosphere is a bit more jovial and enthusiastic. On the 8th, my brother and I walked around the Farmer's Market, on July 29th, I walked around the Pride Market at El Suenito. The butterflies are a symbol of evolution and change. After May's hand out, I decided to lean in on the inspirational element of the art, so I chose to make the pieces out of paper I designed myself and printed out to create a specific effect. The design is full of inspirational phrases, most of which I have used from time to time in my life to move through challenging times. The goal is to get people to be kinder to themselves and each other by being a living example of what kindness is. This project is becoming more meaningful as time passes. My brother's participation and enthusiasm for what I am doing means so much to me, and I am constantly striving for ways to make this project better. I traveled to Portland during the month and I was able to wear the bee outfit on the train and hand out stickers. It brought me back to my Love Rebellion project from many years ago. My work has matured since then, gained a back bone, so to speak. This project is much more about the crafting of the art and the interaction the gift brings.
July- York Yard Crawl
In July, I did The York Yard Crawl without a camera person, so there is little evidence but the residue of the interactions I had at this quaint but beautiful event. This year the theme seemed to be Tiki Bar, and to my delight, there was also a sub-theme, Three's Company, the cringe-worthy buy delightful comedy from the 80's that took the US by storm with the revelation of Suzanne Somers, national treasure and feminist icon. To my delight, there was also a group of women who go around Bellingham dressed as Helen Roper, a sweet and small part of that show that gave it the charm that carried it through the early years of the show. They serenaded me with the theme song to Three's Company, which will live in infamy as long as I have breath in my lungs to sing it. I also ran into some old friends and passed out stickers and butterflies to everyone who would take them. I was even charmed by an older woman who swatted at me as if I were a real live Bumble Bee! As I said, no evidence, but the lovely residue of the interactions I had.
August- Birchwood International Market and Paintings
A small but humble market, I brought stickers and paintings to hand out to all who were drawn to this event, including the vendors. August was a tough month due to some health and social issues that befell me early in the month, then the resulting Long Haul resurgence that sprung from these events kept me out of the game for about two to three weeks. I have still not had the heart to create anything new. It's now September 3rd as I write this and I am starting to feel like my old self again, and as I have a two week break from teaching pottery at Burnish Clay Studio, I am thinking of taking a bit of time to actually relax. I have started a Creativity Tips series on my IG and launched my Creativity Bootcamp so I'm pretty well busy even without making actual things. My plan for September and beyond is to go out with a BANG and then have a Pollinator performance in January at a local venue. I'm getting my Mojo back and feeling healthier than I have in a long time.
September: Origami Boxes at Wonderz Market
On September 28th, my brother and I went to the Wonderz Market on Commercial street. Wonderz Market is an inclusive arts fair for emerging artists and local small businesses. I created the small boxes as a way to convey the specialness of a gift. Within the box, I inserted a short message meant to inspire and comfort. I wrote things like: "you are a magical creature", "you're so cool."
In general, the crowd was overwhelmingly supportive of our efforts, more so than any other place we have pollinated this year. It is our plan to travel east the second week of October for our bday, (we are twins). We are bringing our Bee outfits and pollinating as we go. We plan to hit Boise, ID, Salt Lake City, UT, and Denver, CO. I will be bringing all the stickers with us so that we have plenty of art to hand out to the good people in the middle.
More and more, we are becoming recognized, and people who have seen us before at other venues are starting to request our presence in other places. It's very nice and we truly appreciate being a part of the community like this.
In general, the crowd was overwhelmingly supportive of our efforts, more so than any other place we have pollinated this year. It is our plan to travel east the second week of October for our bday, (we are twins). We are bringing our Bee outfits and pollinating as we go. We plan to hit Boise, ID, Salt Lake City, UT, and Denver, CO. I will be bringing all the stickers with us so that we have plenty of art to hand out to the good people in the middle.
More and more, we are becoming recognized, and people who have seen us before at other venues are starting to request our presence in other places. It's very nice and we truly appreciate being a part of the community like this.
Doomsday Bellingham
An interactive installation collaboratively created with Jennifer Anable. The piece is a carnival-like environment created in a shipping container at The Portal Container Village in Bellingham, WA. The piece is meant to provoke thought through entertainment. The aim is to distract participants with games while bringing up hard questions about consumption, greed, and waste, and how it effects the planet. There are three games: The Wheel of Consequence, Pin the Spill on the Planet, and Fish for your Fortune in the Primordial Pond. Each interactive piece demonstrates how an individual's active or passive participation can negatively or positively effect change. August of 2023.
Home is Where the Heart is.
Installation in Bellingham, WA to bring attention to the rising number of unsheltered folks living on the streets. The pieces are meant to represent homes as well as luggage tags. Their placement on wooden electrical poles around town refer to the fact that for the most part, people tend to look away and not see the problem, ignore it and hope it will go away. The pieces are so small that it would be easy to miss them entirely if you were not looking for them. Installing Spring/Summer 2022.
Custom Tile Job: Kitchen
Completed in Fall of 2021.
A Love Rebellion
A Love Rebellion is an interactive installation, one where I give art to people and open myself up to them. By being vulnerable and present with strangers, I hope to change the way they see themselves and the world around them. I hope to inspire people to their own greatness. You can follow the progress HERE.
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I am traveling the US during the summer of 2017, handing out stickers of drawings I have made, speaking with strangers about love and compassion and the effort to overcome fear and hatred.
I am doing this in order to inspire kindness, love, and compassion in people, and remind them that they can change the world simply by being kinder to themselves. 
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Miss Fortunate and The Dress of Good Fortune
February 12, 2014
I created a dress with quotes from ten different female authors sewed all over it, walked around and asked everyone to pick their fortune.
I created a dress with quotes from ten different female authors sewed all over it, walked around and asked everyone to pick their fortune.
Act Like the Real World is Facebook Day
On February 5, 2014, I used my job to pretend the real world was Facebook. I made rules and guidelines for myself:
- Wear an eye-catching outfit that hints at being watched or observed in some way.
- Randomly “like” people and activities throughout the day.
- Randomly “poke” people throughout the day.
- Enter rooms and announce random, mundane tidbits about your life.
- Hang pictures of myself randomly on walls.
- Frame achievements of others and present them so that other people will also notice said achievements and give congratulations.
- Give people articles about things I am concerned about
Florist backsplash
This backsplash wraps around wall and around the corner. |
Florist backsplash
You can see the tile wrapping around the corner on the bottom. |
Detail
I used the color palette the florist gave me. She asked for a cup and saucer vine tile back splash. I designed, created and installed the piece. |
Detail, backsplash
Made from clay and glazed I formulated myself.
Clay, glaze, 2002-3 |
Detail, backsplash
Cone 6 hand-made tiles for a florist in Portland, OR.
Clay, glaze, 2002-03 |
The Love Orchard.
The Love Orchard. A project about free love. I send invitations to participants inviting them to "come and get some lovin'" in The Love Orchard. I hang low-fire salt porcelain hearts from the branches and scatter "fallen hearts" around the base of the tree. It is a love fest. Clay, salt, copper, love, 1997 - 2000 |
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Consider
This is an interactive installation I did at OCAC. People are sent invitations to participate. They bring the invitation to a staff member at the school in exchange for a ticket. A week later, the participant takes the ticket to the same person in exchange for a ceramic ball. |
Ownership
A week after that, they bring the ball to a large studio. |
1997
In the studio hangs a large bulls-eye. They have the choice to throw it and smash it, or keep it. If they smash it, the ticket is hung above a drawing of a ball, "in memoriam" of the ball that had been smashed. |
Goals and Purpose of Consider Ownership.
This interactive installation examines how people assign value to items they cannot buy. By the end of the project, people were stealing balls from each other and some students found out where the ball storage area was, sneaked in, and swiped some of the balls. I consider this a huge success.
Priceless
This installation showed in the Portland building. The participants are directed to take a small pot from the shelves on the wall and leave something which they think is of equal value in its place. The trade cannot be any type of currency. Then, they fill out the trade on the "ledger" to the left. The show ran for a month, and each week, I would replace the missing pots with new ones and put all of the trades into a large plexi-glass box in the shape of the Portland building. There were trades which occurred for trades as well. This installation was another attempt of mine to explore how people might assign value to an object outside the context of currency.
Clay, poster board, wood, paper, 2000
Searching for Ideal
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This was my thesis project, which examines the context of an item and how it informs the viewer's estimation of value. All eggs on the shelves are $20, and the egg(s) behind glass are $600. This was in my thesis show as well as in a graduate show at Blackfish Gallery in Portland, Oregon.
Clay, glaze, wood, glass, 2000 
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