artist information
Jesse Jones
Jesse Jones Biography
Jesse Jones lives in Astoria and is the Volunteer
Coordinator for CoastWatch, a program of Oregon Shores. She is currently the
chair of the North Coast Oregon Chapter of Surfrider Foundation. She studied
filmmaking at the Northwest Film Center and graduated from Portland State
University. This is her first art installation.
Jesse Jones Artist
Statement
These works began as a resistance to
single-use plastic pipettes, bottles and trays used at a high school science
lab, where I volunteer to train students to collect and sample beach water on
the north Oregon coast. We are looking for enterococcus, a bacteria that causes
gastrointestinal illness in humans and some animals. Processing the suite of
samples, say from six beaches, uses twelve plastic jars, twelve plastic lids,
six pipettes and six Quanti-trays. Over the year, we test dozens and dozens of
times. The irony of working to see the story of what’s in the water, yet making
so much pollution doing it, did not escape me. So, from day one of the testing,
a few years ago, I took the materials home.
As someone whose career has been
centered around advocating for the protection and restoration of rivers,
estuaries and the sea, and educating people young and old about how they can be
involved, making sea urchins from the pipettes (used to transport a measured
water sample) was natural – especially after I found the first float, or buoy,
near the mouth of Ecola Creek. Urchins are beautiful echinoderms related to sea
stars and sand dollars. I love their symmetry and their slow movements. The
baby urchin, or pluteus, was a result of Fugitive and the incorporation of marine
debris found on outings with the two other women in this show. That the larval
phase of the urchin could also be illustrated with the plastic pipettes was
thrilling to me. Its shape, described as an Eiffel Tower, a rocket ship or a
lunar lander, is captivating. Peering into one of thousands of tide pools on
the Oregon coast at an adult sea urchin will never be the same, knowing that
plutei are out there: fugitives in the deep black water of our seas.
The trays, with their 97 cells, are
the final part of processing the water. The collected samples are mixed with a
reagent, used to detect and measure the bacteria inside. The trays are put into
an incubator for 24 hours, and then put under a black light. Glowing green
cells indicate bacteria and are counted to determine if the amount is dangerous
to human health. Like the pipettes and bottles, the trays are single-use –
meaning they are only used one time and discarded. The grids represent a log or
a journal of the water testing. They are labeled by students with the place and
date the water was collected and the exact time it went into the incubator.
I think creating art to illustrate
science enables those who see it to become a little more introspective about
themselves and how they fit into their world. I like the idea of bringing
science front and center in this way, for all to enjoy, learn from and interact
with. This is the idea of citizen science, too – connecting people with
hands-on science opportunities in their communities. The Blue Water Task Force
program is an excellent way to be an actual part of learning the health of our
waters. I would like to thank the Portland Chapter of Surfrider Foundation for
supplying these materials, to the Seaside High School students (and science
teacher Doug Mitchell) for helping to collect and process samples and to the
brand new North Coast Oregon Chapter of Surfrider, who will be carrying the
work into the future.
Jessica Schleif
Jessica Schleif Biography
Jessica Schleif was born and raised
in rural Oregon. In 2017 Astoria Visual Arts invited her to present Seeds, an environmental installation in a warehouse space above the
Columbia River. A 2018 Precipice Fund Grant recipient, Schleif envisioned and
collaborated on the year long Tidal
Rock Project. She was invited to The
Sou’wester Artist Residency program in 2019. She works and lives in Astoria, Oregon.
Jessica
Schleif Artist Statement
My work is a
reaction to the tensions and contradictions that continue to exist in the
struggles between science, nature and human nature. For this exhibit, I spent many hours
walking, collecting and contemplating. Prompted by the fugativity of manmade
waste I collected plastics, metal and other trash which were yielded in
abundance by the wrack lines of local waterways. Often overwhelmed by the vast amount
of garbage produced and discarded by humans, the impact on the environment was
palpable, however hope returned again and again by observing the inherent
nature of ever-changing plants. Much
like plants can alter themselves on a cellular level to find better light,
filter water and remove pollutants from the environment, humans can change and
create new neuropathways through curiosity and persistence. By these methods,
new ways of thinking and being are manifested. We are part of nature. Hope and
transition come from within us and from the living, breathing world we are born
from and nurtured by.
Dawn Stetzel
Dawn Stetzel Biography
Dawn Stetzel graduated from The University of Iowa and
has a Master of Fine Arts from The College of Visual and Performing Arts at The
University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. Her work “Tsunami Evacuation” was
part of the 2016 Portland Biennial. Recology Western Oregon in partnership with
Astoria Visual Arts, awarded Dawn a 4-month residency in the inaugural Coastal
Oregon Artist-In-Residence Program in Astoria during 2016. Her last solo show “Ready
or Not” was in 2017 in Newport, OR at the Visual Art Center. She is currently
living on the Long Beach Peninsula in Seaview, WA.
Dawn Stetzel Artist
Statement
I relate to the word fugitive in the
sense of being a body in motion on the outskirts. I relate to this both
physically and ideologically within my work. My body is in motion as I manually
propel, drag, push, pull, row or roll my sculptures through landscapes in the
margins of places. I am also in motion in the sense of a life pathway as I
strive to find more sustainable ways of living in a place. My sculptures become
tests of endurance, patience, and fortitude in my attempts at reimagining a
more sustainable existence. I relate to the word fugitive also from a material
sense. Due in part to massive amounts of trash and the fugitive nature of
plastics leaching into us and our environment, I chose to build my work with
salvaged materials and I generally prefer a low-tech approach to both building
and also gathering materials. These choices inform the aesthetics of my
sculptures.
I use Kayak Catapult and Pack
to explore my feelings and modes of operation around circumstances that seem
impossible, insurmountable. Within this exploration is loneliness, longing and
a desperate attempt to connect. I embrace the struggle. How awkward and
ridiculous am I, are we, willing to look and feel in order to push through
boundaries, communicate across divides? Looking forward at this moment in time
it is my hope that through perseverance there is momentum through difficulty.
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| Jesse Jones |
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| Jessica Schleif |
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| Dawn Stetzel |