KELSEY MERRECK WAGNER
  • About
  • Portfolio
    • Eco-Artivism: Weaving with Plastic Against Plastic II
    • Eco-Artivism: Weaving with Plastic Against Plastic I
    • Loom & Doom: Plastic Weavings
    • MSU Herbarium Installation
    • UPSIDE DOWN/DOWNSIDE UP
    • Elephants in Cambodia @ FIF Nature Discovery Center
    • Plastic Project
    • Murals
    • Birds of Cambodia @ FIF Nature Discovery Center
    • Tree of Life @ FIF Nature Discovery Center
    • The Elephantine in the Anthropocene
    • From Bangkok to Boone
    • Protecting Pachyderms: From Thailand to Tennessee
    • Collective Vigilance: Speaking for the New River
    • plant life
    • Most Sacred Irritant
    • The Precariousness of Mother Earth and the Fragility She Allows the Water to Embody
    • Specie Invasive: Cozza di Zebra
    • how the zebra got his stripes
  • Exhibit History
  • Contact
    • CV
    • Media
Most Sacred Irritant
September-October 2013
ArtPrize, Grand Rapids, Michigan

​Media: Lithograph and screenprint on Magnani Pescia,  BFK, and Sekishu papers, metallic thread

Take something that irritates you and keep it around until you have turned it into a gorgeous object. Gather your frustrations and distractions and illusions and rather than dwell on the presence of negativity, create an item so coveted people would die for it. Make me a pearl from a speck of sand. As a manifestation of productivity, I created 100 paper oysters as a reminder of the crucial need to continually create. Beginning with equal stacks of blue Magnani Pescia, cream BFK, and Sekishu white paper, I screen-printed multiple layers of ink to simulate the layers of calcium, algae and grime that accumulate on an oyster’s shell while submerged deep beneath the sea. Following with a lithographic stone I completed the linework of the oysters. After flinging spots of acrylic paint, I tore each oyster shape from the sheet, and glued a pair together to create a shell. After stuffing the insides of each shell, each was hand embroidered, and one contains a pearl. This work is part of a larger commentary on invasive species and the impact of capitalism on local waterways and ecosystems.

Links:
ArtPrize


  • About
  • Portfolio
    • Eco-Artivism: Weaving with Plastic Against Plastic II
    • Eco-Artivism: Weaving with Plastic Against Plastic I
    • Loom & Doom: Plastic Weavings
    • MSU Herbarium Installation
    • UPSIDE DOWN/DOWNSIDE UP
    • Elephants in Cambodia @ FIF Nature Discovery Center
    • Plastic Project
    • Murals
    • Birds of Cambodia @ FIF Nature Discovery Center
    • Tree of Life @ FIF Nature Discovery Center
    • The Elephantine in the Anthropocene
    • From Bangkok to Boone
    • Protecting Pachyderms: From Thailand to Tennessee
    • Collective Vigilance: Speaking for the New River
    • plant life
    • Most Sacred Irritant
    • The Precariousness of Mother Earth and the Fragility She Allows the Water to Embody
    • Specie Invasive: Cozza di Zebra
    • how the zebra got his stripes
  • Exhibit History
  • Contact
    • CV
    • Media