Artists

2018 Field Expeditions
		Meggan Joy Trobaugh, Seattle Meggan Joy (Trobaugh) is an emerging exhibiting fine art photographer and digital collage artist, who is currently located in Seattle, Washington. For the last few years, her work has focused on digitally combined flora and fauna, as well as various found objects, in a modern interpretation of a 16th-century painting technique by Giuseppe Arcimboldo. The finished work being a woven web of details, isolated on a black background - forcing the viewer to soak up the shape vs. the familiar elements that created it, or vice versa, depending on how close they look. The work reveals a subject that could never exist in the real world, made of thousands of her own photographs. Sometimes taking up to two years to complete, the finished works have been well received internationally, and Meggan was awarded an Honorable Mention by the International Photography Awards for her winning entry, "Warmth" which was completed in 2016.
		Agnes Marton, Luxembourg In my highly visual, dreamlike poems I make invisible processes (changes of emotions, doubts and fears, inner fights) recognizable, while recreating the language playfully (using non-existent words, distortions, unusual punctuation and layout, mixtures of different languages, juxtaposition). I talk about mysterious beings, snakes proud of their new skin, leopards lying in the middle of the canopy dreaming about their new territories… The word-sparing compositions are full of music, and they leave enough room for the imagination. They are never predictable, they keep surprising you in a thought-provoking way. I often travel and take part in artist residencies to be able to get to know the tiniest details of different landscapes, flora and fauna, local businesses (tools and methods of craftsmen), the local people’s problems, their way of thinking and speaking. It serves as the starting point to my writing (and then it gives its colours too). My first collection ’Captain Fly’s Bucket List’ (just like the libretto I wrote based on it) revolves around fulfilling desires and handling regrets; facing life in the light of death. I am interested in each and every aspect of death. I am ready to learn and share my knowledge and ideas.
		Shinyoung Park, UK My artistic practice focuses on distilling essence by visualizing invisible parts of life at ambivalent conceptual or psychological borders. I’ve been interested in mortality, religious belief and travel. Recently, I am focusing on the scenes in travel by confronting unfamiliar surroundings with imagination. Although my work is not closely related to wildlife, the experience from Nocturne residency will be a good stimulus for my inspiration to develop the field of artwork. If I am accepted to participate in the residency, I plan to create a series of drawing, painting and prints about wildlife in magical mood. Basically, my work starts from drawing. For me, drawing is a method to record the cycle of life and death. When a moment of reality is captured in the frame of an image, the moment is dead, falling into eternal standstill. An intriguing point is that the aura of death and aliveness coexist in an image. The state of an image is ambiguous, neither totally dead nor totally alive. So, the act of drawing is the in-between act of life and death and the creation of an image is the process of freezing and reviving a certain moment in the frame of mortality. The thing I do is to treat the dead moments as an undertaker and to gather them as a collector. The life cycle is also applied to the use of materials. I’ve enjoyed various edible materials like coffee, wine, seasoning and so on. It’s inspiring for me that these materials are made by a living thing’s death and the death is revived on the scene.
		Deborah Santoro, MA My prints and multi-media pieces inhabit the space between yearning and falling, between striving to realize a potential, and the habits/patterns/programs that enmesh us in ways of being that do not serve our higher selves. The LIQUORS sign becomes a stand-in for addictions of all kinds, and the hopelessness that trails them. The asana, or yoga poses, represent an embodied, intuitive knowing that links human potential with universal themes; dendrites and star charts, our mitochondria like tiny suns inside our bodies. In the time bound dance between despair and enlightenment, time, pattern and color all have their part to play. Moving forward, my process is entering a research phase as I complete the Asana series and think more deeply about neurons, dendrites, and tree roots. The connections between things interest me greatly - the linkage between neurons and start charts, what happens as information travels along synapses, how does this relate to the mycorrhizae that bond symbiotically with tree roots in ways that enhance the survival of both organisms? I’m interested in creating prints and site specific installations that explore these ideas and hint at what they might mean to humanity, inferring the idea that a larger view of the universe might give us perspective on our frail notions species-hood and our anthropocentric world.
		Blawnin Clancy, Ireland To Sleep: Sleep is the portal to the unconscious- the part of the mind that that we are not generally aware of but holds wisps of memories, feelings and ideas. A thought, a snippet of overheard conversation, a fleeting glimpse witnessed during the waking hours can spark a virtual mirage of veracity and tangibility that manifests as a dream. These photographs are a staging, a dramatic recreation of the murky shadowy concealed inner world of dreams. The recurring dreams of travelling, losing teeth, finding treasures and juxtaposed people and objects are subjects recreated in a representational mode.

2017 Field Expedition
		Mellissa Fisher, UK Mellissa Fisher’s practice combines art with microbiology; her interests lie in the interrelationships between illustration, sculpture and living organisms. Mellissa’s research is heavily based on the connections with nature and the self, posing questions to an audience regarding their relationship with their bodies as well as their link to nature. Mellissa’s practice has developed through creating bacterial sculptures of her own body, into an exploration of mycology by growing mushrooms on sculptures of the human form, to represent the idea that our bodies are an ecosystem, using the body as a landscape for growing and hosting different organisms.
		Robyn Crouch, Montreal The imagery and symbols that come through Robyn's work encourage one's gaze inward to the cellular realms. There, one discovers playful depictions of chemical processes; they are the basis for the macrocosm, and our human consciousness becomes an interface between the seen and the unseen worlds. In her functional ceramic work, the influence of Chinese and Japanese tea ceremony encourages moments of contemplation. The viewer-participant can loose her or his train of thought while meandering through considerately composed collages of geometries, molecules, plants, and creatures, all woven together by strands of double-helical DNA. A flash of recognition. A momentary mirror. A goal in this work is balance and harmony between the form, and the micro-mythologies encircling it. Moments of personal ritual in daily life beget even deeper, more conscious presence. Little by little over time we gain insight into what makes us tick. Robyn’s goal is to provide a platform (however small), on which to rest, and off of which to launch forays into the luscious and potent realms of imagination, self-inquiry, and discovery during moments of solitude and engaged contemplation. So let us celebrate alone and together!
		Siobhan Madden, Ontario www.greenheartartistry.com I have come to realize that my role in this world is not a passive one. I use my artistic practice as a tool to provoke thought and emotional response, through the act of making. The nature of my practice is interdisciplinary, focusing on sculpture and instillation. I am not limited to one specific medium to address a specific material response. I use the rawness of material form, in this instance algae, to capture the viewer aesthetically through its color and physical form to layer the petri like dishes. Through this labour-intensive process, I build upon my relationship with the natural world. In my opinion, the act of making is the most powerful tool I have as an artist. I feel that for my own work to be valid, it needs to have a purpose and it needs to give a voice to the natural world, which affects us all. My practice is driven by my personal relationships and studies in environmental science. This is my foundation when understanding the natural world and what my role is an artist.
		Tracy Maurice, Brooklyn Tracy Maurice is an artist, photographer and filmmaker based in NY. Her practice is a research based, project to project approach that combines analog techniques, often inspired by science, nature, and early cinema special effects. She is interested in exploring symbolism via techniques that use ”artificial darkness" (a term coined by Noam M. Alcott ), often using a black ground or dark field microscopy to create iconic images that aim to redefine 'darkness' as something transcendent and connected to nature. She recently debuted an audiovisual project titled,’ Preservation’, at Lincoln Center Atrium in NY. Her experimental film investigated themes of change, transformation, and reoccurring patterns found in nature through a series of impressionistic vignettes using dance and microscopy and set to a score composed by Thomas Alton Crane, and performed live with Eliot Krimsky and Colin Killalea. She worked as the Creative Director for the band Arcade Fire from 2004 - 2008, creating artwork, music videos and live content for the albums ‘Funeral’ and ‘Neon Bible’. Her background in music has led her to continue to collaborate with musicians, including Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld, among others. Tracy's work has been featured in festivals and publications including, The Worldwide Short Film Festival, Creativity, Shots, Stash Magazine, Billboard and Print Magazine. She won a Juno Award in 2008 for Best Director of the Year for the artwork and design of the full-length album, Neon Bible by Arcade Fire.
		Rosemary Lee, Copenhagen My artistic practice is based on investigation of interactions between technologies and systems in the natural world. Each of my installations manifests complex webs of influence linking machines, living things and the environments which they inhabit. Working from research into themes such as media geology, hybrid ecology and posthumanism, my artwork brings together equally hybrid influences from philosophy of media, science, conceptual art and literature. I make an effort to use my artwork as a platform for understanding and responsibility toward the ecological effects of human intervention and technological development.

Biophilia: Nocturne summer 2016
		Anastassia Kouxenko, Sydney, Australia Growing up in a working suburb, my access to the natural world was limited, and I developed an obsession for it through documentaries and written works of both fiction and non-fiction. My work has always showcased animals and nature in various forms, particularly in terms of trying to capture its beauty in a way that is neither true imitation nor complete fiction. I have always held a deep fascination for the natural sciences, and after studying both Biology and Ecology they have formed an integral part of my conceptual approach to creating works. For the past year I have been exploring a theory that there is an inherent link between separation from nature and the development of a particular kind of romance with it; one that is inclined to turn dark and warped while retaining an alluring yet abject aesthetic (as exemplified by the blossoming of Gothic Romance alongside the Industrial Revolution). Currently my practice revolves around using Gothicism and early science fiction as a lens through which to capture nature as it manifests itself in suburban spaces, and the ways in this differs from more ‘natural’ environments. I work primarily with polymer clay but many of my works also feature gemstones and synthesized crystals.
		Evan Larson-Voltz, Michigan My work centers on ideas of pre-‐linguistic and root forms of communication. Through blending natural and abstracted systems, my metal work and sculptures point to causality connections and break downs of transformation and mutation. For example in “Protozoa Transforming to Splash” and “Sponge and Protozoa”, juxtaposes droplets and wave patterns to coded languages such as schematics, texts and mapping as a representation landscape of/for the mind. Whereas “A Meta-‐Fiction” looks at presentation modes that are utilized within the separate contexts of the art world, scientific community and domesticated mantel displays and how they morphologically change one another’s approach to communication. By incorporating natural occurring signifiers and interpretative models, I am able to extrapolate works that share the organic growth of language as an interdependent and universally understood system. Further the examination of such interrelationships suggests a moment of feeling or spirituality, which is created by the meta-‐ linguistic organizational strategies employed.
		Holly Townson, Toronto Holly Townson graduated from York University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Education. Through the refreshing nature of her work, she amalgamates the grounded and familiar, with the fanciful and bizarre. She explores polarity in her work by embracing severe contrasts through visually stimulating, unpredictable dynamics that mimic synthetic and raw matter. Natural processes of shedding skin and fruition, change, motion, impermanence and connectivity are concepts that inspire her work. Her evolving style often includes saturated hues and flat void spaces interacting with mountainous forms and abstracted fleshes. The suspension of forms in foreign space, existing on the brink of recognition are discordant, yet assume a harmony within their fragmentation. Themes within her work include humankind/nature, utopia/dystopia, chaos and consumption.
		Inga Maria Brynjarsdottir, Iceland Born in Reykjavik, Iceland, graduated from the Icelandic Academy of the arts in the year 2004. Since then, Inga Maria has been working in the fields of fine arts, illustration, design and animation. Inga Maria´s work is based on her fascination with nature, wildlife and the oddities and ugliness in life. Inga Maria combines real life with the imaginary with a slash of distortion, which varies.