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You\u2019d get to know the lichen\u2019s subtleties, though, if you were\u00a0to sit down for hours at a time to embroider on a photograph\u00a0of it printed onto silk.\u00a0This kind of focus fosters a sense of\u00a0connection\u2014one that shows us how stitching a humble lichen can\u00a0help us address big problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this case the problem is: How can we protect and heighten interest in wild places? Other approaches might have you sit through an eye-glazing lecture about the importance of biodiversity, or learn a fact about the amount of carbon absorbed by a certain acreage of forest. While both are well and good, Transylvania art professor Zo\u00e9 Strecker takes a different approach; she and her collaborators make art that benefits both natural and human communities\u2014from the coal fields of Kentucky to hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A project of hers called \u201cLavish!\u201d takes on abstract, challenging economic and social issues through creative work. Transylvania\u2019s Morlan Gallery this past spring featured the embroidery exhibit, which is based on organisms living on Pine Mountain, actually a 125-mile ridge running through the heart of Appalachia. Volunteer embroiderers from across the country stitched vignettes from Strecker\u2019s photos, and she hung them within a circular, wooden structure that measured 22 feet across and 10 feet high. To experience the exhibit, visitors stood encircled by the images while sounds of Strecker\u2019s field recordings and mists that smelled like trees\u2014and even dirt\u2014further immersed them in the scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ve just decided to create work that gives people a little window into the different types of natural communities,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Strecker didn\u2019t start out to solve any problem. Instead, the artwork grew out of her feelings for Pine Mountain. \u201cI just love the place so much and I love the wildness. It\u2019s the closest thing to a truly wild place that I\u2019m around very much.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She created these \u201clittle windows\u201d not only for the gallery visitors but also the embroiderers, whose \u201clavish\u201d energy and attention on lichen and other Pine Mountain denizens gave the exhibition its name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the project didn\u2019t begin with the specific goal of recognizing the vulnerability of natural places and wanting to protect them, the act of creating the artwork may have made the embroiderers more receptive to that. \u201cOnce you get intimately connected with something, you fall in love with it; or at least you have a bond to it,\u201d Strecker says. \u201cThat\u2019s so important to protecting something\u2014you don\u2019t really want to take care of something you don\u2019t know about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Strecker also talked about how oddly calming it is to be busy with your hands, which might make it easier to take on stressful issues like mountaintop removal or climate change. \u201cIt gives people a way to not only process something that\u2019s difficult and they want to care about, but it gives them a way to act on it in a positive way that feels good to them,\u201d Strecker says. \u201cIt feels healing, and beyond that it feels generous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The project also is empowered by the fact these stitchers work together as a community, much like the residents of Pine Mountain area bond while their hands are busy making quilts. \u201cIt makes them feel like they\u2019re applying their sense of connection and community through this concrete action of making,\u201d Strecker says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She helps to build community through a shared love of Pine Mountain in ways beyond embroidery. For instance she co-hosts and curates Pine Mountain artist retreats; for the past three years about 150 artists, musicians, writers and naturalists have taken the three-day retreat, which is a collaboration with the Kentucky Natural Lands Trust. Several members of this Pine Mountain Collective\u2014including musicians, a poet and a painter\u2014participated in \u201cWild Things: Selected Artists from the Pine Mountain Sessions\u201d at Transylvania as part of \u201cLavish!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also this past school year, Strecker enlisted another community\u2014this time her own art students\u2014in a project that blended art with helping make the world a better place. For \u201cA Splash of Generosity\u201d students made ceramic bowls and sold them at an auction to benefit WaterStep, a Louisville nonprofit that sent water filtration devices to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This fundraiser, which raised $1,200, was a group effort that had the students form committees for food, finance and marketing. \u201cEveryone contributed in a different way,\u201d Strecker says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “People need that kind of connection that engages other parts of their minds and their beings.” <\/p>Zo\u00e9 Strecker<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n In addition to building teamwork\u00a0skills, the project enlisted the students\u2019\u00a0creativity to solve a real-world problem\u00a0while benefiting them in a way that, say,\u00a0buying and reselling cookies to raise\u00a0money or starting a GoFundMe page\u00a0wouldn\u2019t have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The craft required their bodies and minds in a focused effort that was thoughtful, intentional and productive. \u201cWhen you apply that to something specific, it just gets a lot of power and energy and a positive connection that you don\u2019t have when you just write a check for something,\u201d Strecker says. \u201cPeople need that kind of connection that engages other parts of their minds and their beings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Making connections\u2014especially across diverse fields of study\u2014and social engagement are familiar goals of the liberal arts. Strecker, herself a Grinnell College graduate, knows the power this mindset has in effecting positive change. And because these students may have taken an array of subjects\u2014from anthropology to art to chemistry\u2014they\u2019ll have unique ways of doing so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She sees this in action while team-teaching a May term course on mountaintop removal, biodiversity and human culture in mining areas with philosophy professor Peter Fosl. The course takes students well beyondftextbook learning, offering a variety of activities from simply spending time in the forest to photography to tackling intellectual issues like: What does ownership of land really mean? is way of approaching problems provides unexpected solutions. In this case combining philosophy and art creates a synergy. Art can open up avenues inaccessible to rigorous philosophical arguments on the one hand, and on the other, thoughtfully navigating the intellectual history of an idea can make an artist\u2019s work less naive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also important to creative problem solving is creating a space to experiment with ideas\u2014to go outside your skill zone. That can be risky professionally but is encouraged in school. \u201cArt is often talked about as a game space,\u201d Strecker says. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of a virtual space to explore in a way you don\u2019t normally explore. You\u2019re playing by the rules but willing to bend them. You\u2019ve got that creative nimbleness that you\u2019ve tried out before in the art space and you can apply it to real-world problems.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Zo\u00e9 Strecker Brings Pine Mountain to Transylvania While admiring the view atop Pine Mountain in southeastern Kentucky, you might not notice the reindeer lichen growing at your feet. Even if you happen to glance down at this pillowy plant, odds are you\u2019ll overlook how it curls at the edges, or how it has four shades of green but appears almost silver. You\u2019d get to know the lichen\u2019s subtleties, though, if you were\u00a0to sit down for hours at a time to embroider on a photograph\u00a0of it printed onto silk.\u00a0This kind of focus fosters a sense of\u00a0connection\u2014one that shows us how stitching a humble lichen can\u00a0help us address big problems. In this case the problem is: How can we protect and heighten interest in wild places? Other approaches might have you sit through an eye-glazing lecture about the importance of biodiversity, or learn a fact about the amount of carbon absorbed by a certain acreage of forest. While both are well and good, Transylvania art professor Zo\u00e9 Strecker takes a different approach; she and her collaborators make art that benefits both natural and human communities\u2014from the coal fields of Kentucky to hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico. A project of hers called \u201cLavish!\u201d takes on abstract, challenging economic and social issues through creative work. Transylvania\u2019s Morlan Gallery this past spring featured the embroidery exhibit, which is based on organisms living on Pine Mountain, actually a 125-mile ridge running through the heart of Appalachia. Volunteer embroiderers from across the country stitched vignettes from Strecker\u2019s photos, and she hung them within a circular, wooden structure that measured 22 feet across and 10 feet high. 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