Alchemy of Tears
Portland, OR

Alchemy of Tears:
Life floods
Rivers appear to take over yet keep moving
Eddies stir in us…. absorbing the darkness
Breath intervenes
A crack is found
Light comes through            carving space
Veins imbued with hope, fill with love
Light and darkness marinate
tremble……. shake ………. stir
Shed  
Strength brings forth 
a   beam
Light turns into tangible threads
I weave these threads

Dana Lynn Louis

Weave

Russo Lee Gallery
Portland, OR

This exhibition was in process for two years and is a combination of my work abroad at Thread, an artist’s residency in Senegal, West Africa, and Gather:Make:Shelter, a citywide creative collaborative in Portland, OR. Both projects aim to enrich the lives of those in their community through creative practice and artistic pursuits with a focus on collaboration, engagement, skill-building, and connection.

Contemplative Practice

Sun Valley Center for the Arts
Sun Valley, ID

Curator Courtney Gilbert invited me to create two site specific installations at the Sun Valley Center for the Arts as part of the Contemplative Practice Exhibition 2017. Included in this exhibition was the second incarnation of the envelope project (first was at the Hoffman Gallery in Portland, Oregon) which solicited things participants wanted to clear. During a ceremony at the exhibition the envelopes were burned and the mica circle remnants remained as a collective memory of everyone’s intentions for clarity both personally and globally.

Stream

Friesen Gallery
Sun Valley, ID

Selected images from a solo exhibition at Friesen Gallery.

La Grande Robe

Thread
Sinthian, Senegal

This project is dedicated to the women of Sinthian, Senegal, where I created this work in an artist residency at Thread, a project of the Joseph and Anni Albers Foundation. The project consists of two dresses and videos of the women working and children dancing. With La Grande Robe, my intention is for people around the world to see this installation and appreciate these powerful, beautiful, creative women; their work; and primarily, their humanity, which comes forward in all of their encounters and activities.

2016 Contemporary Northwest Art Awards

Portland Art Museum
Portland, OR

As one of eight artists in the 2016 Contemporary Northwest Art Awards exhibition at the Portland Art Museum I created three site-specific installations: Oscillation, Clearing, and Filament.

As Above, So Below

San Juan Islands Museum of Art
Friday Harbor, WA

A site-specific installation for the San Juan Islands Museum of Art. Several components composed the installation including a temporary painting on the entire glass “skin” of the atrium in which I wrapped the building in hundreds of prayer beads. Indicative of the contemplative practices of many cultures worldwide these particular images were intended to be a prayer for the health of the Salish Sea that surrounds the islands.

Portland Winter Light Festival

Portland, OR

The Portland Winter Light Festival is an annual event of the Willamette Light Brigade, a non-profit arts organization. The festival is presented to the public for free, and builds community by bringing art and technology to inclusive audiences while invigorating Portland in the winter.

Thread

Laura Russo Gallery
Portland, OR

A 365-day diaristic project that began and finished on the Autumnal Equinox. The project combines photographs taken daily with an additional layer of drawing embedded in the photographs using a simple digital drawing tablet. These drawings are the physical manifestation of the energy I felt in each place. As the year progressed the project’s focus became one of my intimate collaboration with nature. This is a project I am interested in continuing to explore while in residence in other locations.

Crystalization

Tri-Met
Portland, OR

A multimedia installation for a Tri-Met light rail station inspired by the renovation of a stream bed nearby where salmon have returned. Viewers encounter different art interventions at day and night as well as seasonal changes.

Drawing Breath

The Breathe Building
Portland, OR

A full building tattoo, glass doors and windows.

Landscapes of the Inner Eye

A 365-day diaristic project that began and finished on the Autumnal Equinox. The project combines photographs taken daily with an additional layer of drawing embedded in the photographs using a simple digital drawing tablet. These drawings are the physical manifestation of the energy I felt in each place. As the year progressed the project’s focus became one of my intimate collaboration with nature. This is a project I am interested in continuing to explore while in residence in other locations.