Marisha Farnsworth

Instagram: @marishafarnsworth

Website: http://marishafarnsworth.com

Bio: Marisha Farnsworth is an artist and architect who creates site works and community projects at the intersection of ecology and technology. Her work ranges in scale—from drawings to large architectural installations and has involved the participation of hundreds of people and multiple species. Farnsworth is co-founder of Future Forests, an arts and research organization based out of the Sagehen Creek UC Berkeley Field Station in the Sierra Nevadas. She has exhibited her work at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, in the Venice Biennale and has work in the collection at the Nevada Museum of Art. Marisha received her BA at Cooper Union and a Master of Architecture at UC Berkeley. Born in San Francisco she remains committed to the Bay Area where she shepherds the arts and craft community O2AA Artisans Aggregate in West Oakland.

Statement: Becoming a mother has prompted me to reevaluate the scale and materiality of my artistic practice. Wielding a chainsaw with a toddler in tow is simply impractical. As I transition from large-scale installations to more intimate studio-based work, I am exploring new ways for my sculptural medium—wood—to take shape in two-dimensional forms. The traditional methods of burning and grinding wood to create pigments have led me to delve into handcrafted art materials. By utilizing ground wood, bone, uni shells, rabbit skin, and egg yolk, I create works that engage in a meaningful dialogue with their materiality. These pigment studies are displayed on experimental paper made from linen rags retted by earthworms, celebrating the transformative journey of materials in a fully compostable artwork.