Project Recla­ma­tion

The hor­rific tor­nado and loss of lives in Joplin was cer­tainly not one of the bests of 2011 but the project started in Kansas City to help the affected artists was.

We lived with the news of the Joplin tor­nado from the moment that it hap­pened. Only 150 miles from Kansas City, many of our friends grew up in Joplin but left for KC as we are the clos­est big(ish) city, and many still have fam­ily liv­ing there. We watched Face­book feeds of friends trav­el­ing to col­lect their chil­dren, and oth­ers going to help their par­ents put their lives back together. So I was grate­ful and hum­bled to be able to take part in an amaz­ing project put together by a great artist and for­mer studio-mate of mine, Matt Dehaemers, and the tal­ented Holly Swangstu.

Debris pile from Joplin tor­nado in Leedy-Voulkis Art Center

Descrip­tion from Dehaemers:

A Debris pile col­lected from 6 Joplin, Mis­souri homes dev­as­tated by the EF-5 tor­nado on May 22, 2011.  98 Kansas City artists were asked to cre­ate a new work of art incor­po­rat­ing this debris.  The result was over 100 new works of art.  These works of art were auc­tioned to cre­ate a new grant made avail­able to Joplin artists whose homes, stu­dios and art have been destroyed by the tor­nado.  The Twist and Shout Auc­tion (Part II of Project Recla­ma­tion) raised over $20,000…

…Col­lec­tively, this will be our way to bring some sense of order and hope to the chaos and dark­ness. Nature has wielded its own raw power and mys­tery through the destruc­tion of this storm. As artists, we can work to bal­ance that energy and force with our own expan­sive and pow­er­ful cre­ative process. (more from Dehaemers)

Equus Ferus (Wild Horse)

Each par­tic­i­pat­ing artist was invited to the debris pile to pick out a few items to be used in their art­work. I selected a plas­tic toy horse — cracked and caked with dirt.

Toy Pony on Painted Steel

Back in my stu­dio pho­tograph­ing the pony, I thought about the child that lost their toys and with it their inno­cence and sense of safety. How scary it must have been. I thought about our resilience and our abil­ity to make some­thing beau­ti­ful from the scraps. It was a pro­found after­noon for me– my energy so entirely focused on the peo­ple of Joplin.

On a sub­se­quent trip to the debris pile I pho­tographed tex­tures includ­ing a wheel­bar­row, metal flash­ing, and a skinned tree branch to layer into the piece. The tex­tures of these items give con­text to the jour­ney the lit­tle horse has been on, rep­re­sent­ing the power of both destruc­tion and sur­vival.  Each mark the scars that make a thing more beau­ti­ful and unique. How unin­ter­est­ing he would be if he was per­fect and new.

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