Nov 1, 2022 | Art & Science, Environmentalism, Listening to the Forest, Speaking
Emeritus beckons. Time and time again, I’m inexorably drawn to stand within it with my head tipped toward the sky. There’s an unease, a dis-ease, underlying the elegance and grace of the forms. How will you respond?
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May 20, 2021 | Listening to the Forest, Speaking, Speaking Video Archive, Studio Notebook
We heard from four ecoartspace artists who shared their ideas and artworks about trees and forests: Marie-Luise Klotz, Christopher Lin, Erika Osborne, Leah Wilson. Leah Wilson told the story of “Listening to the Forest,” her installation created for Oregon State University’s College of Forestry.
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May 2, 2021 | Environmentalism, Listening to the Forest, Speaking
May 20: The beauty and mystery of trees has long been a subject for artists, and more recently, concern for the survival of forests (the lungs of our planet) has been paramount.
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Apr 26, 2021 | Listening to the Forest, Speaking
Join us on Wednesday, May 12 at 4 PM for a conversation about the new public art installation “Listening to the Forest,” located in the George W. Peavy Forest Science Center on the OSU campus. The discussion will be preceded by a short video introducing the artwork and will include a live Q&A with the artist Leah Wilson, moderated by Dr. Brooke Penaluna.
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Aug 24, 2020 | Creative Process, Listening to the Forest, Studio Notebook
Color, Light, and Climbing Douglas-fir – Top of Crown (Air Temperature), Acrylic and Resin on Wood, 2020, 46 in. x 62 in., Panel 13 of 16 Listening to the Forest – Leah Wilson Listening to the Forest Getting Physical – The Magic Bubbly I can’t really know a place until I have physical engagements with it . Making artwork about the land and ecosystems isn’t physically engaging enough. There needs to be more, and it needs to be as intense as the art making process. The making and the physical engagement are both fundamental, intertwined aspects of my...
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Aug 2, 2020 | Creative Process, Listening to the Forest
Data Western Hemlock – Butt Flare (Dendrometer), Acrylic and Resin on Wood, 2020, 46 in. x 62 in.,Panel 7 of 16 Listening to the Forest – Leah Wilson Listening to the Forest Stream Drawing Studio Four times in one year, I sat for the duration of a day at the gauging station at Watershed 2 in the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest on the solstices and equinoxes. My task was to take reference photos of a white rock sitting at the bottom of the small creek for a series of paintings entitled Solstices and Equinoxes. Every 10 minutes from sunrise to sunset I pushed the shutter...
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Jun 25, 2020 | Creative Process, Listening to the Forest, Studio Notebook, Work in Progress
A look up close. Red Alder – Top of Crown (Air Temperature), Acrylic and Resin on Wood, 2020, 46 in. x 62 in., Panel 1 of 16 Listening to the Forest – Leah Wilson Listening to the Forest A Story of a Relationship with a Place Listening to the Forest is not about wood anatomy, or data, or science. Although what you will see is wood anatomy and lines drawn from data, it is not the basis of my work, or what compels me to persevere through all of the setbacks and frustrations that come along with making a public art project. The foundation, and the impetus to continue, lie in...
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Mar 5, 2020 | Listening to the Forest, Studio Notebook
It is an exhilarating time in the studio. Attention-Devotion, Acrylic and Resin on Wood, 2019, 46 in. x 62 in., This is a prototype for Listening to the Forest – Leah Wilson Listening to the Forest I am excited to announce that I have been awarded the opportunity to create my first Percent for Art public art project! Listening to the Forest will be permanently housed in Oregon State University’s new Forest Science Complex. The building is beautiful, replete, as you can imagine, with intricate wood interior details and extensive windows. I invite you to follow my process as I...
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Feb 23, 2020 | Field Notebook, Listening to the Forest, Studio Notebook
Harmony Experiential Knowing and Data Sets Harmony Experiential Knowing and Data Sets Climbing the Discovery Tree – Leah Wilson I climb a 200ft old growth Douglas-fir tree every season so that I can feel the light quality change as I ascend above the forest canopy. This means of knowing extends past light registered and processed by my eyes. It offers a complementary way of understanding a forest that a complex data set cannot provide. I experientialy know that the warmth of the sun doesn’t have as much power over the dark, damp forest floor as it does higher in the tree. I know how...
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