You’ve spoken about viewing your art as a garden. Why does this resonate with you?

I like the idea of the artwork not being passive. If the art was like a garden one would need to take care of it. It would not just be something that hangs on the wall; it would be something that you need to tend to, that you have a relationship with. The idea of a frame around a piece of artwork seems to me to suggest a coffin. When the artwork is behind glass it seems more like a specimen that is being preserved then something we can interact with.

You balanced your career with a job as a teacher. Do you find that having the structure and socialization of teaching serves you well as an artist? 

I absolutely love teaching when I feel like my talents are being used. I don’t really like the structure at all. I feel completely caged by the bell system. I think in 2020 we should know that if we’re looking to get the best out of individuals it is not always the most helpful to be rigid with your timetable. I don’t think the idea of 45 minutes per subject with a hard deadline is actually helpful to anyone. Yet there needs to be some way to organize all 500 or so students into some type of structure. I don’t think I necessarily have the answer or even the power to change the system but what I do know is that it benefits a select number of people… A certain type of person. I love being alone in my studio. I feel like I could be the type of person who moves to a cabin on a national forest. The more I am alone the more I feel I have time to slow down and actually enjoy the little things.

You contributed a piece for a Bon Iver album cover and you’ve spoken about how music is essential to your fulfillment. What kind of music gels the most with you? 

I have musical tastes that spread all over the spectrum. I really like some forms of noise, jazz, folk, classical, indie rock. I don’t think there’s really any one thing in particular that holds me. If it’s creative and it feels honest, I usually can find some value in it. Some music seems to feel really reflective of what I’m paying attention to and then that music seems to allow for me to create more successfully.

Much of your work is informed by your interest in land-use issues, and how as a country we seem to fetishize flat cornfield but not natural marshes and wetland. Do you consider your work political? 

I do feel my work is political because the way I look at land is. Humanity is very shortsighted. Even if we have the science that would allow us to solve a problem, very few people are willing to sacrifice their way of life to obtain that solution. I am not super optimistic about our ability to maintain a healthy environment.

You’ve talked about flat work being somewhat lifeless, yet so many of us are conditioned to view art this way. Are there other countries that do a better job at educating people on seeing work in dimensional ways?

It seems like some cultures have a respect for the natural world and maybe not just representations of it. There are maybe places where gardening or being in the land is more important than having an image of it hanging on the wall. Would we need landscape painting if we were constantly living in it? It was a wealthy, elite class from the city that moved out into the country and purchase land, not to farm, but to look at. The question is, why did they want to look at land? And how did they look at land differently than the farmers that we’re working at?

How much do you consider your work rooted in a Midwestern sensibility? Have you ever wanted to try another part of the world?

I think growing up in a place and having that experience with a space is something you only get to do once. I learned a lot from the midwestern landscape. I think it actually formed who I am and how I think about the world. I love to travel but I don’t necessarily think it’s to gain a different perspective artistically.

How has your productivity changed this year?

I have found that I need to change the way I create things. I am often making works that would only take a day to create. I am not doing large projects or researching because I don’t have the time. For much of the year my two children were at home with me and I needed to take care of them while I was also trying to teach remotely. There was really very little time for me to get into the studio.

Do you have a favorite artist from any time in history?

I think visual art is very similar to music for me if it’s honest and it’s responding to the world in a creative way I can really appreciate it. There are also different reasons why I like visual art. I can find myself really getting into a Yoko Ono conceptual art piece and at the same time having a wonderful response to the colors in a Jean Baptiste Camille Corot painting.