The Barrington Land Conservation Trust’s “Art in Nature” Series presents a community workshop, “Being [with] Trees,” on Saturday, Oct. 19, from 9 am to noon, with artist Kendall Reiss. The workshop will take place at Sowams Woods in Barrington, RI. Participants will learn to produce molds from natural materials and transform them into art objects and wearables.
This workshop is open to adults and students age 12+. No prior artistic experience is required. Registration is limited to 20 people. The registration fee of $20 covers the cost of materials, payable by check or cash at the event. The artist is donating her time to conduct the workshop.
Sowams Woods, one of the properties protected by the Barrington Land Conservation Trust, is part of the ancestral homelands of the Pokanoket people. The preserve is considered a sacred area by the Pokonoket Tribe, a place of peace that was once set aside for women and for childbirth. In 2006, the Land Trust acquired Sowams Woods with the support of local, state, and federal funding and local philanthropists. The property encompasses 12 acres of forested land with a network of trails bordering Echo Lake.
Molding a Relationship with Trees
“With their ability to sequester carbon and provide clean water, forests are integral to understand earth’s climate and cultivate sustainable ecosystems,” says artist Kendall Reiss, a Professor at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University.
In this community workshop, participants will work with two different types of alginate to produce molds from trees, rocks, pinecones, and natural materials found at Sowams Woods. From these molds, participants will cast objects and wearables in concrete.
Kendall Reiss has conducted artistic projects among indigenous tree-species reforestation sites in Portugal, in networks of old growth forest in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, in the pine-esker forests of Finland, and with an indigenous tulip tree elder in her hometown of Bristol, R.I. Her work takes many forms: jewelry, objects, conversations, writings, rituals, exhibits, shared understandings, and community workshops.
“My hope is to fuel an ongoing collaboration in which trees are participants in artistic creation and biologic exchange,” she says.
Kendall Reiss
About Kendall Reiss
Kendall Reiss is a Professor of the Practice in Metals at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University in Boston, where she serves as Chair of the 3D & Performance Department. A native of Bristol, she grew up exploring the rocky shoreline of Narragansett Bay. She earned a BS in Geology from Dickinson College, studied at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, and received an MFA in Jewelry and Metalsmithing from the Rhode Island School of Design.
Her work has been exhibited at museums in Finland and Portugal, the New York City Jewelry Week, the Baltimore Jewelry Center, Greenville Center for Creative Arts, Bristol Art Museum, and Haskell Public Gardens. Kendall recently presented her ongoing research project, BEING [with] TREES at the College Art Association annual conference in the session, Learning from Trees: Artists & Climate Solutions.
Kendall has worked on curatorial projects at Brooklyn Metal Works, The Hotel Wilshire, Velvet da Vinci, and Alloy Gallery. She has taught at the Rhode Island School of Design, Fuller Craft Museum, and with Pocosin Arts School of Fine Craft.
Kendall owns and operates the local arts initiative, Kendall Reiss Gallery & Studio, at 469 Wood Street in Bristol, RI. The business focuses on exhibiting the work of contemporary artists and jewelers, offers private instruction and small group classes in jewelry making and metalworking, in addition to serving as Kendall’s studio.