About the Waterways Project
Waterways: Lake Chautauqua is funded through a 2023 New York State Council for the Arts Individual Artist Grant.
The project addresses the watersystems of Lake Chautauqua in collaboration with the surrounding community, scientists, and institutions. Special thanks in particular to the Professor Courtney Wigdahl-Perry, aquatic scientist at SUNY Fredonia, Jay Young, Chautauqua Lake & Watershed Management Alliance, Inc, Pat Hubbell, Dewittville Bay, The Lakewood Public Library, the Fenton History Center, Mandi Shepp, SUNY Fredonia Special Collections and Archives, The Roger Tory Peterson Institute, Scott Ekstrom, The Smith Memorial Library, Mark Wenzler, Peter Nosler Director of the Chautauqua Climate Initiative, the Chautauqua Institution Grounds, and the Athenaeum Hotel. All materials are sourced from the site and as sustainably as possible.
The below works are all now being exhibited at the Weeks Gallery, Jamestown Community College, Jamestown, NY. https://www.sunyjcc.edu/experience/arts/galleries/weeks/current along with a number for works from my previous project Navigation: Lake Erie/The Great Lakes.
The installation Ice Out Lake Chautauqua was exhibited at the Smith Memorial Library, The Chautauqua Institution, upper floor. The work addresses the decrease in ice coverage for water bodies and the impact this is having on evaporation rates, erosion, and aquatic life. For the Ice Out process, I collected ice from Lake Chautauqua at Long Point State Park, in January 2023, stored it in a freezer, and then collected the melt water during a heatwave in May. I used the collected melt water to watermark/drip/blowout variations into the blue/green pigmented pulp. This was then transferred to a recycled hemp/cotton/jute base sheet. Archival digital photographs documenting the ice formations (from the January collection site), Ice out graph imagery from Skillmans, Bemis Point, archival Lake Chautauqua Maps, and microscopic imagery (from under the ice) were then printed onto the handmade, pulp painted paper. This installation consists of multiple sheets or pages and is conceived as a loose-leave book.
The series Waterways: Lake Chautauqua Map Works are all created using archival Lake Chautauqua maps with collaged materials including handmade Milkweed paper and collected Lake Chautauqua Hazardous Algae Bloom (HAB). Digital Microscope photographs documenting the Cyanobacteria and diatoms collected from the included HAB are printed on the maps. Diagrams of Lake water movements including stratification and Langmuir Circulation models are sewn and drawn onto the collaged maps.
The large composite works include vintage maps, archival inject, Milkweed, recycled linen fibers, Hazardous algae Bloom collected from Lake Chautauqua, ink, sail, thread and rope remnants. All materials are directly sourced from the Lake Chautauqua, the environs or focus the Lake (such as the maps).
Also included in the exhibition are several artist books including the Ice Out artist books, the Waterways Process book, and HAB - which uses the Chautauqua HAB as a medium.
The Iceout Lake Chautauqua Artist book is also currently on view as an invited artist book for the 10th International Artist Book Triennial, Vilnius - this is being exhibited at multiple international venues. http://gallery.artistsbook.lt/exhibitions/10th-artists-book-triennial-vilnius-2024-exhibition-in-venezia/