90" X 264"

watercolor monotypes

image by Nikki Evan

A rumbling in the distance is nature's way of alerting living creatures to their environment.

Rumblings is an ongoing project, a monumental collection of fifty 30" X 44" watercolor monotypes that draw attention to the 20,000 species of wild bees whose survival is at a critical juncture.

In these works, I carefully manipulate watercolor ink and oil into a chaos of minuscule paint particles. The materials are interconnected across the oversized monotypes, paralleling their magnetic attraction to golden dust and their corresponding fragility due to the chemicals that flood residential gardens and industrial agriculture.

The installation of Rumblings is a call to action to reduce pesticide usage, create habitats for nesting, and cultivate native indigenous plants.

collaborative site-specific immersive installation

lens based: videos, three underwater videos, 12 videos documenting urban ecological restorations, 16 photographs documenting light.

string, clamps, acrylic, dichromatic film, large bills-prop, glass apothecary jar, paint. disco balls, fog.

found objects: passed insects, insect habitats, chrysalis, landscape and construction site materials, rusted and salt crystalized artifacts, sea shells, feathers, and a turkey skull.

images by Jake Eshelman

Potentia // Actualitas is a collaborative, immersive installation that explores the potential and actualized complexities of natural and human-made intelligence through lens-based media, found objects and ready-mades, in a site-specific installation. The lens-based works record iterations of light, space and water surrounding a central structure created from organic matter, rusted artifacts, glass, and construction materials. Running throughout is a neon line that connects these varying attributes into a systematic relationship. Together, Roykovich and Klement build a world that investigates the balance of opposing dichotomies and subsequent freedom from dualistic constraints. They advocate for a wild and intuitive response to a possible future of unbound potential.

POTENTIA

Potentia is an exploration into the possibilities that all entities possess. Using evolving personal systems, taking incremental steps, an environmental recollection merges with mystery through natural but intangible forces. As complexity develops into new hypotheses, imagination meets at the intersections of undefined futures, and a space is created that contains multitudes. We become scouts at the periphery of realization. –JR Roykovich

ACTUALITAS

Actualitas metaphorically represents a societal shift that fosters the coexistence of human-made structures and natural systems. The contention is not one of harmony in dispossession but rather a balanced composition where both are enriched. This new perspective invites us to harness the power of measured and natural intelligences rather than work against it in our pursuit of progress and innovation. – Cindee Klement

60” X 10.25” X 10.25”

Texas Bricks, Paint, Plastic Dome and Base, Vintage Globe Bank, Prop $100 bills, Coins from a diversity of economies, Paper Wasp’s nest on Maple tree leaves, Seashell with barnacles, Red swamp crayfish, bird nest, feather of a Pileated Woodpecker, Blue jay feathers, Mantis, Cicada, Great Purple Hairstreak, Tropical Checkered Skipper, White Peacock, Red-spotted Admiral, Monarch, Red lacewing butterfly, June Beetle, Eastern Carpenter bee, Wolf Spider, Beebalm, Sacred Datura, Bundleflower and various dried leaves.

 image by Jake Eshelman

Interdependence is built from a collection of TEXAS-stamped bricks washed with a white patina. Stacked in the form of a square skyscraper, it shoulders a transparent dome and base, crowned with a vintage Globe Bank finial.

Within the transparent dome is a still-life collection of intricately connected elements from natural and human-made systems. They wreath a "Houston" stamped brick fragment.

By using everyday materials that we typically associate with urban environments, the work conveys that the collective actions of Houstonians, living in a dense population center with a sprawling footprint and long growing seasons, have far-reaching implications for global economies. It is a reminder that our choices impact not just our immediate landscapes but global eco-systems as a whole.

This sculpture is not a warning. It presents a solution. I employ systems thinking to suggest that embracing economic systems is necessary to recover biodiversity. Economic systems dominate our culture and intimately impact natural systems. Houston's ecology and commerce can potentially create a new economy - an ecotourism industry. Houstonians can transform the negative impact of industrialization, commerce, and urbanization into a source of beauty, wonder, and economic growth by advocating for our natural habitats.

Interdependence invites us to rethink our individual relationship with the planet’s biodiversity, recognize the value of our natural heritage, and embrace the idea that supporting wildlife is a global responsibility dependent on a collection of individual acts.

detail

images by Jake Eshelman

30” X 44”

watercolor monotype

image by Carlos Ocando

Horses are indeed a marvel of sensitivity and emotional energy. Eight months pregnant, Alex, my daughter-in-law, visiting a stable where she used to ride horses, had a beautiful moment with Diva, one of the horses. Even though Alex had never ridden Diva, it was clear that Diva had been affected by her caretaker's recent pregnancy.

Recording this emotional connection, I carefully manipulated watercolor ink and coconut oil into a chaos of independent cells. The placement of these physically independent cells creates the visual representation of a cellular-level spiritual connection between the Baby Whisperer and the unborn child.

This moment is a reminder that all species deserve much more credit than we often give them.

It also underlines how crucial it is to build connections with all creatures to restore and maintain a healthy ecosystem.

67” X 15” X 18”

Found object concrete and rebar curbing fragments, rusted steel, bronze, and gold leaf.

image by Jake Eshelman

Moving Forward consists of two rectangular concrete curb fragments and two cast bronze roots, the latter with gold-leaf patinas. These objects are tethered like irregular beads on a broken wire of rusty rebar falling to the ground.

 The fractured concrete and the more extensive root land at the forefront in a forward strutting anthropomorphic structure. Growing behind the long-necked bird-like form, a stem of rebar twice the creature's height reaches for sunlight. The meandering stem is counterbalanced with the smaller root in a lyrical passed sunflower shape.

 The weighted composition invites viewers to reimagine the relationship between our engineered landscapes and ecological systems to support wildlife as a means to forge a path toward a regenerative future.

30" X 44"

watercolor monotype

These three pieces are sketches for future work. This is the north fence line sketch.

30" X 44"

watercolor monotype

sketch of the north fence line.

This is the second of three sketches of the proposed installation.

30" X 22"

watercolor monotype

image by Carlos Ocando

This body of work consists of 22 pieces. These 22 pieces are experiments with shapes for a proposed installation. An in-depth description can be found here.

4” X 8” X 6”

polished bronze

image by Nash Baker

Whispers of a Shifting Divide is a polished bronze sculpture that imagines the unimaginable. It was inspired by my children's 1997 discovery of a crustacean fossil lying in the desert of West Texas just before we moved east to semitropical Houston, Texas.

The sculpture symbolizes the U.S. 100th meridian, the demarcation between the arid western US and the humid eastern US since the early 1800s. Since 1980, this demarcation between arid and humid has shifted 140 miles eastward from the west side of Austin, Texas to the east side of Austin to the 98th meridian. Another 140 miles — another 40-50 years — and Houston, known for its semitropical humidity will be on the arid side of the boundary.

The polished bronze material nods to Houston's future and industrial character, particularly the polished steel street signs in its minimally landscaped commercial tourist area, Uptown Houston.

By imagining the unimaginable, this work fosters a dialogue that calls for environmental consciousness of the possibilities of our actions.

12" X 24" X 5"

bronze, gold leaf found ledger, and bill

image by Nasth Baker