Welcome to the Floodplains Studios newsletter! I’ve put time-sensitive information up top, but read to the end for a bit more about what Floodplain Studios is all about.

In this issue:

• Nature + Art Creative Studio: Eco-Printing, Monday Sept. 8, 3:00pm

• Volunteer Session: Sunday Sept 14, 10am

• Yough ‘n’ Roll Party of the Trail, Saturday Sept 13, 10-2pm

• Artist in Residence: Erika Johnson

• Why Art+ Nature?

Eco-Printing Creative Studio Session

Join us this Monday Sept, 8, 3pm, as we explore Eco-Printing in the first of several Creative Studio sessions we are holding in September and October. Facilitated by Erika Johnson, our inaugural Artist-in-Residence (more about Erika below!), these sessions are an invitation to join us in creative exploration — observing, experimenting and learning, largely outdoors, on our own and together. In this session, will be making prints using naturally occurring pigments found in leaves, flowers, bark and other organic matter we will gather. Two other Creative Studio sessions will be held in September: Tues. Sept. 16, Stick & Stalk Sculpture, and Thurs. Sept. 25, Ephemeral Mosaics. Suggested donation of $5, and you can get details and register at https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/floodplain-studios/art-with-nature-eco-printing

Volunteer session: Sunday Sept. 14, 10am-12pm

We could definitely use help getting the property cleaned up! Come join us this Sunday Sept. 14, 10am, for a volunteer session. We will be working on removing invasive plants and picking up trash in the ‘yard’ next to our building, the access point from the GAP trail. Please email faye@floodplainstudios.org to let us know if you plan to come.

Yough-n-Roll Party on the Trail, Saturday Sept. 13, 10am-2pm

Come visit us at the Floodplains Studio info table at the Party on the Trail, part of the Yough-n-Roll annual ride and fundraiser for the Mon Yough Trail Council, an all-volunteer organization that maintains 25 miles of the GAP trail. We will have a little activity to try out. And there is still time to register for the bike rides!

Erika Johnson, Artist in Residence

I am so happy to announce that Erika Johnson is the inaugural Artist in Residence at Floodplain Studios. You might know Erika from her work as an artist, teacher, and leader at organizations including the Ruins Project @sagermosaics, @creativecitizenstudios, @creative_reuse, and @touchstonecenterforcrafts.

Erika’s many skills include being a mosaicist, printmaker, mudlarker, macroinvertebrate videographer, and community connector. The more time I spend with Erika, the more I am struck by her powers of observation, her knowledge and love of flora and fauna, her willingness to experiment with unfamiliar materials, and her friendliness-– all qualities that make her perfect for helping to activate Floodplain Studios as a place for people to get creative in nature.

These past few weeks Erika has been getting familiar with the land of Floodplain Studios and exploring the creative potential of materials she has found there. She has made pigment from river rocks and charcoal pencils from twigs, created assemblage sculpture with knotweed stalks, and made beautiful prints with leaves. She is using this knowledge to facilitate the upcoming creative sessions open to the public this fall. Most visibly, Erika has created a beautiful mosaic on the front of the building along the GAP trail – more info on the mosaic to come!

Why Art + Nature?

Apparently if you want to learn a lot in a short period of time, try tackling something big & new that sparks your enthusiasm, but that you don't really know much about. The year since I (perhaps impulsively) acquired the 8-acre stretch of land that is now Floodplain Studios has been full of discoveries. I have been learning about everything from snakes and toads, to dumpsters sizes and disposal costs, to creek restoration, all kinds of flora, earth-moving machinery, herbicides, zoning...and I have met so many new, wonderful people, very easily, in such a short amount of time.

Though I didn’t know what I wanted to do with the property at first, my intentions have been gradually taking shape. Many years ago I saw the documentary Rivers and Tides, about the land artist Andy Goldsworthy. The idea that one could create beautiful works with nature that are meant to disappear, resonated with me. While I knew that I wanted to use the property that is Floodplain Studios for something that combined creativity and the environment, it was when I found myself looking at reels like those from land artist Laurence Winram that I realized I wanted the space to be an invitation for all people, whether they see themselves as artistic or not, to come explore their own creative sides.

Instantly I realized that this kind of land art approach might to tick off a bunch of boxes I didn’t even know I had: it has low barriers to entry (an abundance of materials to work with, at your fingertips), does not generate trash, comes without preconceived ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ ways to create, gives us the chance to be in a peaceful, relaxed place, encourages us to see and learn about what is living around us with a sense of wonder, reduces that pesky problem of what to do with pieces we enjoy creating once we’ve made them, and, frankly, helps me come to terms with the existential fact that nothing is permanent. So I am gradually working to create a place where people can come experience these things for themselves. I hope you will come out and join us!

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Floodplain Studios

1934 Harper Street, Little Boston, PA 15135

faye@floodplainstudios.org