Simulated Gardens
Simulated Gardens is a series of arts based research
projects that acknowledge human activity has become
the dominate influence on the environment and that
there is no place on earth that has not been impacted.
Simulated Gardens is a series of arts based research
projects that acknowledge human activity has become
the dominate influence on the environment and that
there is no place on earth that has not been impacted.
Transmutation Still Life
2019, Mulvane Museum of Art, Washburn University, Topeka, KS Faculty group exhibition Porcelain casts of anthropogenic debris and recreational boating paraphernalia, laser cut noxious aquatic weeds, and photographs taken with a toy microscope of things found along shorelines at various locations. Installation views |
Washed Up
2019, Oklahoma State University Museum of Art, Stillwater, OK The first of a three-part exhibition series about the impact of water events—regionally and globally—on geographies, cultures, and economies, this installation explores the environmental challenges of water insecurity and climate change to human life and biodiversity through the lens of art. Installation views |
Salt and Ice
2018, Mulvane Museum of Art, Washburn University, Topeka, KS Part of the 8 Practices group exhibition. Mixed media installation with porcelain cast boats, NaCl, Na2B407•10H20, vinyl lettering, short story handout and photography. Installation views |
Memory of Water: constructing a sense of place in the Hydrosphere
2018-17, Albrecht Kemper Art Museum, Saint Joseph, Missouri An interdisciplinary/intermedia exploration of water issues and interior waterways broadly, with content that draws upon pop cultural, scientific and literary references and merges these with sound, movement, image and sculptural objects.The result is an assemblage of discursive and immersive, lyrical and interpretive perspectives on water. The artists encourage serious consideration and thoughtful involvement with the work presenting complex topics with a sense of beauty, theatricality, humor, and a reserved optimism. Installation views |
Drift and Drag: reflections on water
2015, Mulvane Museum of Art, Washburn University, Topeka, KS Kansas, a land of ebb and flow. Marked by extremes in variability of water levels, Kansas is characterized by the polarities of flood and drought. Drift & Drag is a survey of science and art-based research projects incorporating sound, image and object by individuals who are from, working in,or collaborating with Kansan artists or communities to explore a variety of issues pertaining to water. Installation views |
con/Current(s)
2014, Terschelling, the Netherlands An arts-based research project exploring water issues focusing on the oyster reefs of Long Island Sound, a man-made peninsula on the tidal plains of San Francisco Bay, and the ebb and flow of ancient seas and contemporary waterways in the Midwest. Installation views |
Simulated Garden
2013, Fisch Haus Gallery, Wichita, Kansas This installation provides whimsical and eerie entries into fantastical worlds of science and medicine on both large and small scales. Installation views |
Floating World: a tent city campground for displaced human and bird song
2011-2010, San Jose, California A temporary public art installation commissioned by the City of San Jose´Public Art Program in collaboration with the ZERO1 International Biennial. Twenty-one miniature flood disaster relief tents, spanning 190 feet, were cantilevered off a bridge that spans the Guadalupe River. |
Niche: nature morte and the simulated garden
2009-2008, The Commons, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas The word niche is from the old French for nest. In contemporary usage, it can refer to the place an organism occupies in an ecosystem, or the place a product holds in what marketing professionals sometimes call the consumer ecosystem. The exhibition Niche encompasses both associations. The imagery is a hybrid of consumer culture and the natural world. Images evoking the tree of life as a symbolic construct and as an illustration of natural selection pervade the installation. The result is suggestive of a strange fairy tale in which the beautiful and peculiar occupy the same space. Installation views |

Prairie Earth: an installation exploring the native
Kansas landscape and urban development
2008-2006, Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, Kansas
As both prairie and farm succumb to grass lawns and asphalt,
a dialogue about our relationship to nature and the land is
urgent. This project challenges the viewer to think about
these issues by contrasting the rich ecology of the prairie
with representation of the repetitive environment offered
by poorly planned development.
Description
Installation views
Kansas landscape and urban development
2008-2006, Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, Kansas
As both prairie and farm succumb to grass lawns and asphalt,
a dialogue about our relationship to nature and the land is
urgent. This project challenges the viewer to think about
these issues by contrasting the rich ecology of the prairie
with representation of the repetitive environment offered
by poorly planned development.
Description
Installation views

Wonderland Recast: from wilderness to garden to mall
2006, Catherine G. Murphy Gallery, St. Paul, Minnesota
Wonderland explores cultural perception of nature and
juxtaposes the native ecology of the central Midwest with
the artificially constructed garden environment of shopping
malls and suburban development to call attention to the
impact of urban sprawl on native species.
Description
Installation views
2006, Catherine G. Murphy Gallery, St. Paul, Minnesota
Wonderland explores cultural perception of nature and
juxtaposes the native ecology of the central Midwest with
the artificially constructed garden environment of shopping
malls and suburban development to call attention to the
impact of urban sprawl on native species.
Description
Installation views