Rootlets for CSArt Madison 2018
Since I am obsessed with all things folded, I looked around my site and realized I had never posted about my Rootlet project.
In 2018 I was one of 10 local artists featured in CSArt Madison. A play on the concept of Community Sourced Agriculture, CSArt is a movement to feature locally made art from a selection of artists that can be purchased as a share. Each artist was awarded a stipend to made approximately 61 pieces of art that were a set, like a collection of related prints or small sculptures. Each share purchased contained 10 different pieces of local art. Plus the host organization featured larger works of each featured artist (Mine was Secret Carrot.) I found CSArt to be a fun way to get the word out about my art and meet other artists.
While developling my piece I was inspired by this quote (below) from Dorothy Day and developed Rootlets as a pattern to be folded and formed out of a single piece of paper. Each folded rootlet, is a small contemplation of our fragile and vital connection to each other and draws connections between art and agriculture. In both occupations, cultivation and caretaking are necessary for growth, and beauty is a common reward.
“I am done with great things and big plans, great institutions and big success. I am for these tiny invisible, loving human forces that work from individual to individual, creeping through the crannies of the world like to many rootlets, or like the capillary oozing of water, which if given time, will rend the hardest monuments of pride.”