Gretchen Scharnagl grew up in South Florida, beginning her archiving of nature and environmental practice in her mid-forties. She graduated with an MFA from Florida International University, where she still teaches classes in the Architecture Department, Art and Art History Department, and Honors College. “I use refuse and residue from my past bouts of consuming and upcycle the discards of others and found natural material. My art archives nature, suburban back yards, ecosystems, South Florida including Deering Estate, and our home – Earth. Experiential and research based, my practice includes reading Green Ideas by Penguin, Kinship from The Center for Humans and Nature, and Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet. I consult scientists, whose guidance supports the scientific literacy of my art. Currently playing with palimpsest-based collage, concrete poetry, scribbling, tracing, installation, and mark-making. The understanding that the environment is inseparable from human equity, I now shift toward social/environmental issues within my practice. I use the language of the humanities, poetry, poetic thought, or visual poetry. I measure success in the dialogue my work inspires. A scientist visiting my studio said, ‘You have me looking at things I’ve never looked at.’”
12:30 pm - 2:00 pm