Uncover the world of contemporary art with this episode of the "Insights of an Eco Artist" podcast by Joana Alarcão. The interview features eco-artist Anna Fine Foer, whose work is on view at The Peale in April 2023. Anna's work is a blending of digital tech with traditional collage techniques that challenge perceptions & raise environmental awareness. Dive into her inspirations, process & impactful work in this enlightening episode. Other episodes in this series are available on Spotify.

Anna Fine Foer (00:00): I think one of the big evolutions in my work is a long time ago when I was working more minimally, I would know everything, what I was going to use and probably what all the colors were going to be be. And now I feel like I'm working a bit more like a painter. I don't like all the decisions to be made. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> before I sit down. I like the discovery along the way. And the best part for me is mm-hmm. <affirmative>, there's a lot of excitement in that way because you can surprise yourself, you can start out with an idea. Yeah. But it can become more than what the, some of the parts it can take on a whole new way by sometimes, for example, I'll just, I have a lot of files of images organized by subject matter. And so sometimes I'll just happen to be looking at these image files and I'll find the most perfect thing that goes with what I'm working on. And I didn't even think about it or know or realize. And that's what I love about the discovery, where you haven't made all your decisions when you sit down to start and you, you leave yourself more open for things to come in.

Joana Alarcão (01:07): Welcome to insights of an eco artist. My name is Joana Alarcão. I'm an eco-artist and arts writer. In every episode, I bring worldwide artist that invite to fight to create a more sustainable world. Hello everyone and welcome back. Thank you for joining us today as we explore the exciting world of contemporary arts and artists who are pushing the boundaries of traditional art forms. And today we have the perfect example of that. We are interviewing an fine fur, a Baltimore based artist who blends digital technology with additional collage techniques to create thought-provoking pieces that challenge our perception of the world around us. And a world has often recurring motives, such technology, natural disasters and location, but is a specific approach and aesthetic that unifies a diverse subject matter from constructing multi-dimensional landscapes on a two-dimensional plane to blurring the lines between the natural and the manmade. Anna Collages tells more than one story and invite us to think beyond the surface with a background in textile conservation and a lifelong interest in maps and collage, and brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to work. And we are going to experience this during our conversation. We delve into our process inspiration and impact our work has on raising awareness about incremental issues. Let's dive in.

(02:37): Thank you, Anna, for being here. Totally appreciate it. Let's just start by you telling us a bit about your background and how did you begin making art.

Anna Fine Foer (02:47): <laugh> Like my background, you want to be say like, where I was born and where I lived and . . .

Joana Alarcão (02:52): Yeah. What influenced you to become the artist that you are today?

Anna Fine Foer (02:56): Well, I think one of the most significant things is I was raised in a home of very serious intellectuals. My father's a professor des Español <laugh>, sorry, no, Portuguese. And and, and French. And my mother my father taught in, in university. 

Contact The Peale for a complete transcription: info@ThePeale.org.

An Interview with Artist Anna Fine Foer, Part I, 2023

Uncover the world of contemporary art with part II of Anna Fine Foer's interview on the "Insights of an Eco Artist" podcast by Joana Alarcão. The interview features eco-artist Anna Fine Foer, whose work is on view at The Peale in April 2023. Anna's work is a blending of digital tech with traditional collage techniques that challenge perceptions & raise environmental awareness. Dive into her inspirations, process & impactful work in this enlightening episode. Other episodes in this series are available on Spotify.

Anna Fine Foer (00:00): You know, it's hard for me to say art is accessible because I get in conversations with friends of mine who aren't artists who talk about how people are in intimidated to go into art spaces because they think it's like a, a rarefied thing and you have to be of a certain level of sophistication and yeah, yeah, yeah. At the Peale Center in Baltimore, they, they think of it as very much a community space and they don't want it to be like a snooty art gallery, you know, like in New York where you go in and nobody talks to you and all this kind of thing. But, okay. So to answer the question, I think it's like a gateway. It's an opening where people will look the picture and their mind is free to interpret it in whatever direction they want to go. And it's interesting because I've, I've had people in my studio who didn't even realize that art could have any meaning whatsoever which was really fascinating to me. because there's plenty of artists out there whose work doesn't have any meaning. That's true. But I just feel like a picture can open up a whole world.

Joana Alarcão (01:17): Welcome to insights of an Eco Artist. My name is Joana Alarcão. I'm an Eco artist and arts writer. In every episode, I bring worldwide artists that invite a fight to create a more sustainable world.

(01:32): Hello everyone, and welcome back to the podcast. I hope you are a wonderful Valentine's Day and are enjoying the sunny days As much as I am. As artists, our environment can have a big impact on our work. And I'm sure many of you can relate to the struggles of working in a cold studio wearing two winter coats and two pair of socks. it wasn't really doing it for me, <laugh>. So, speaking of artists, I am thrilled to bring you the second part of the interview with an ffi, a Baltimore based artist who seamlessly plans digital technology with traditional collage techniques to create stunning and thought-provoking works of art. In this episode, Anne shares some value advice for aspiring artist and give us a deeper insight into our past and present exhibitions and works. We'll explore the recurring motives in her art, the collaboration between science and art, and discuss how she uses a unique approach and aesthetic to convey a central message about the environment. Let's jump right in. When you look over your various projects throughout your career, which one resonates the most with you? Which one represents a shift within your artistic individuality?

Anna Fine Foer (02:55): I really, I'll just refer again to this series about Tulip mania because I think it was very successful in me doing a lot of research and the research inspired all these compositions. And each one is a different aspect of tulip mania. Some of it's more about the history, some of it's more about the scientific ideas that were going on at that time. And the reason why I can mention that one is also because what I was talking about where you don't have to illustrate all the ideas of the whole big subject matter in, in one collage, it gave me that free, that idea of having each composition just be about one very specific aspect. It was all still the first time that I worked on a series that was all about one subject matter.

Contact The Peale for a complete transcription: info@ThePeale.org.

An Interview with Anna Fine Foer, Part II, 2023

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#) Ecoart in Action, Activities, Case Studies, and Provocations for Classrooms and Communities

After experiencing a separation between her creative and climate justice communities, Neha Misra — an award-winning climate justice advocate, immigrant poet, and contemporary eco-folk artist —  felt that a more integrated way of being was calling. And it was largely through poetry that she was able to reclaim and embrace all the different pieces of her identity. 

In our May Leap of Leadership meetup, Neha shared her journey with us through her poetry. Listen on to hear passages of burnout and renewal,  and of power and enoughness.

LoL final

Leap of Leadership - Stepping into our full selves through poetry (May 31, 2023)

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Ecoart in Action: Activities, Case Studies, and Provocations for Classrooms and Communities. Fr

ecollage_01 (2024)

'How to be a forest' (2024) is for improviser (with tactile sound-boards), electronics, field recordings, and film. Part of a developing series of performances and audiovisual compositions called 'Ecollages', each of which which explores listening- and sounding-with the more-than-human world. 'How to be a forest' focuses on regenerative cycles of listening, playing, and looping alongside asynchronous collage of sound and visuals. 

Recently I've been thinking (and wondering) about how ecological listening/performance practices can sensitively hold human and more-than-human sounding in the same space, through strategies of gentle shifts in attention, without substantial manipulation and avoiding biodata-sonification. This score is an exploration in refracting forested landscapes. 

Short version premiered at Bonjour Claude's Scratch Night, Levenshulme Old Library, Manchester, September 2024.

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How To Be A Forest (2024; 22 Minute Version)

The "Be Here" storytelling project, in conjunction the Peale, Baltimore's Community Museum, and the Smithsonian's Stories from Main Street initiative, is an effort to gather and distribute stories about community life and places across the United States. The first version of this project began in 2011 with the Stories from Main Street storytelling initiative,  the brainchild of the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street (MoMS) team. Today, the Peale is partnering with Museum on Main Street to continue the storytelling campaign, often connected thematically to MoMS' traveling exhibitions about topics like work history, waterways, food culture, traditional music, hometown sports, etc. Anyone with an interest in life in America’s towns and communities can add their own experiences to the archive.

The "Be Here" program is an effort to diversify the voices of American cultural stories, stories especially about places that are important to people. To leave a story, download the "Be Here Stories" app on the App Store. Learn more at https://www.thepealecenter.org/bherebmore/

www.henrymcpherson.org.uk
Composer • Improviser • Artist • Researcher 
🌿 plant-based music 🎻dance + instruments 🎵  improvisation + ecology 🏳️‍🌈
🎓 Postdoc @ Creative Manchester, University of Manchester

New tracks tagged #ecoart