Clearline Zine Issue 003

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Cl earl i n e

F I R E FASHION E N E R GY

PHOTO BY SAORI ICHIKAWA-WHITE @ICHIGRAPHY AMANDA MILLET-SORSA & MAKI TESHIMA INTERVIEW ON PAGE 8

DEAR CLEARLINE ZINE READER, Thank you for being a part of the Clearline community in support of a sustainable future. Clearline's goal is to start conversations and to grant a platform to integral perspectives surrounding textile and climate-change-related themes; there is no conversation or platform without you, so we earnestly express our gratitude.

Clearline Zine is a sustainable textile zine based in Detroit, MI. There is a clear line between what is right and wrong in the textile industry. There is a clear line between what is right and wrong when it comes to how we treat the earth. There is a clear line between taking initiative and deliberately avoiding this timely issue.

WHY FIRE? Water was the theme of our second issue, released in May 2020. We started our letter from Issue 002 thanking the frontline workers who were fighting Covid-19. A year later, we’d like to begin by thanking these workers once again. We hold hope that we will all come to see the end of this pandemic; however, we acknowledge that for far too many there is still a long journey ahead. Light, optimism, and reflection is carried over into our themes for Issue 003. As a future-focused zine, we couldn’t imagine pursuing the next publications' themes of fire and fashion without considering what we’ve been through, and what energy and newness we hope to create.

Fire came to mind for Issue 003 because of the global wildfires that have been amplified by climate change.

This is a sensitive subject — one that has affected the lives of many people and many biodiverse habitats.

We want to share the beautiful work of the artists in Issue 003, while keeping the ugly side of these disasters present in our minds. This duality of wonder is needed in order to ponder and reflect how we can all make art that is conscious of our surroundings. It’s our mission at Clearline to donate proceeds from our print copies to organizations that align with the urgent circumstances of our themes. During 2021, One Tree Planted — a 501C3 non-profit with a focus on global reforestation — will receive a portion of the profits from Issue 003.

We are proud to feature so many artists' voices in this issue. It is truly a publication that focuses on how different artists interpreted the theme from their perspectives. We are grateful for how our Clearline community has grown and how many artists we’ve connected with. This issue is specifically geared towards highlighting the voices of our contributors: many features are interview-based and the majority of the profiles were penned by us using the artist's descriptions of their work or directly by the artists themselves.

We're all battling climate change together, therefore, we felt it was important to give everyone a chance to say exactly how they see it, are feeling it, and are making art in the midst of it.

Kindly, SARAH SPARKMAN, Editor in Chief @ssparkles_weaves CAROLYN RIDELLA, Creative Director & Designer @carolyn_ridella

THIS IS THE BRIEF THAT ARTISTS RESPONDED TO WHEN THEY SUBMITTED WORK FOR POTENTIAL PUBLICATION IN CLEARLINE 003: Wildfires represent a healthy energy, a chance for renewal, an opportunity for growth. Unfortunately, the impacts of human-induced climate change have made wildfires quite unnatural, leading to increases in both the number of fires and the breadth and intensity by which they burn. Fast fashion and unsustainable textile practices are directly related to the earth’s warming climate. It's time for these industries to take responsibility for their role in the devastation that has been wrought on the lives of those who call these susceptible regions home, as well as the land itself.

In response to these environmental injustices, Clearline Zine asked for submissions that utilize the color theme of burnt orange for our third publication. This color theme unites reflections on forest fires, the relationship between the fashion industry and climate change, as well as interpretive meditations on the palette of burnt orange — which feelings and energies artists associate with it.

Artists reflected on their energy in 2020 and where they wanted to direct it in 2021. Even the ashes of forest fires create nutrients that return to the soil. Creators in Issue 003 focused on how they would move forward while taking in these themes.

Artists, thank you for filling up this issue with your thoughts and artwork. And thank you, reader, for spending time with this book.

After wildfires, pioneer

PROCEEDS FROM CLEARLINE ZINE ISSUE 003 DURING 2021 WILL BE DONATED TO ONE TREE PLANTED. TO CONTRIBUTE FOLLOW THE QR SCAN BELOW.

species of PLANTS AND FUNGUS ARE THE FIRST TO COLONIZE the damaged ecosystem, beginning a chain of ecological succession that leads to biodiversity and stability. When this happens, it is a sign that reforestation can begin in order to It

O N E T R E E P L A NT ED 501C3 NON-PROFIT WITH A FOCUS ON GLOBAL REFORESTATION As an environmental charity, we are dedicated to making it easier for individuals and businesses to give back to the environment, create a healthier climate, protect biodiversity and help reforestation efforts around the world. All by planting trees!

Started in 2014, we have more than doubled the number of trees planted year over year. Fast-forward to today, we now work with awesome reforestations partners in North America, South America, Asia, and Africa who help us get trees in the ground to restore forests after fires and floods, create jobs, build communities, and protect habitat for biodiversity.

In 2020, we more than tripled the impact that we had in 2019 — we planted 15 million trees!

hasten recovery.

t a k e s an average of 2-4 YEARS AFTER a wildfire before reforestation efforts

Climate change, as predicted, is fueling longer,

can begin. Saplings simply wouldn’t survive until the soil has begun to naturally replenish, can absorb

stronger, and quickerto-start wildfires.

water, and can support new life.

It also takes time to mobilize resources for large-scale reforestation.

Increases

In a non-human world, wildfires would mostly be started by lightning strikes.

RECENT PROJECTS

in the cost of battling active wildfires have greatly reduced the budgets available for prevention, which creates a domino effect of worsening conditions.

In British Columbia, we’re planting a whopping 1 million trees over the next 2 months to accelerate reforestation and restore forest health in a high priority OGMA (Old Growth Management Area) that burned during the 2017 Plateau wildfire.

In Vettabbia Park in Milan, Italy’s Vaiano ValleNosedo region, we planted trees as part of an innovative regenerative urban agroforestry project.

About 90% of wildfires in the United States are started by humans.

In Illinois, we’ve teamed up with Living Lands and Waters to distribute over 166,000 trees across the Midwest of the United States as part of their Million Trees program.

SOURCE: ONETREEPLANTED.ORG

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SOURCE: ONETREEPLANTED.ORG

Amanda Millet-Sorsa & Maki Teshima

Stephany Latham

Kay Cirocco

Irina Novikova

Danielle Petti

Suzan Harbin

Daniel Sweeting

Yuda Optiffiny

Kit Parks

Nicole Weiss

Silvana Smith

Ellen High

Erin Kanzig

Farhad Nikfam

Julia Kooi Talen

Detroitknits - Greta M.

Lara Carbonaro

Martin Mbuguah

Sarah Rose Cohn Bennett

Tanya Momi

Lisa-Marie Price

Catalina Aranguren

The Dogwood Dyer - Liz Spencer

Sarah Sparkman

Jeganmones - Megan

Danielle Sargeant

Caroline Kaufman

Jenifer Upshur

Besjana Kryeziu

Kristy Headley

Elijah Sparkman

Meg Hollister

Ayobami Adelaye

Oddbird Co.

Molly Eddington

Riley James

Emma Schultz

Rachel Brunhild

Claire Weaver-Zeman

Philip Lindsey

NOT SORRY GOODS

Josh Tafoya

Bea Montero

Zoé Cavaro & Eva Ménard

Rebecca Ledbetter

Monica Marshall

Laura Mychal

Victoria Marks

Sophie Sparkman

Myles Dunigan

Isabelle Tavares

Mario Molins

Sebastian Petersen

Pallavi Padukone

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UP IN THE AIR AMANDA MILLET-SORSA & MAKI TESHIMA

“Up in the Air is a collaborative work by Japanese natural dye artist Maki Teshima and Finnish-American artist-painter Amanda Millet-Sorsa that engages in an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural exchange on color and both artists’ relationship to nature. The paintings and mobile sculptures are made with naturally dyed textiles and mycelium — all biodegradable materials. The dyes came from areca nuts, avocado pits, carrot tops, chlorophyllin, indigo, oak galls, madder roots, turmeric…” - SHIM Art Network Press Release Why was the use of natural dyes and mycelium important for this project?

AMANDA: Natural dyes and mycelium are materials that are biodegradable and eco-conscious. It was important for me to work with materials close to nature for this project with Maki. Art history is full of artworks made from biodegradable materials: oil on canvas, clay sculpture, pencil on paper…therefore one needs to ask how is making artwork with natural dyes and textiles and mycelium any more sustainable than marble sculpture? And are these artworks meant to be equally durable for centuries to come? Because of the concerns of the environment and the effects of climate change caused by extraneous human waste, biodegradable materials have become important to consider for less durable objects used in mass consumption.

When using these materials in making artwork, I’m thinking of it more as an ephemeral engagement and existence so it was important for me to think about this as a kind of performance art. How do we engage with nature, not only through the ephemeral materials and colors we used, our differing cultural relationships to the changing seasons, but also how our installation and video of the work at Far Rockaway Beach became a dialogue with urban nature. It explores how we’re constantly in flux.

Mycelium is a fantastic material of the future, one that can be grown and shaped with molds. There is a mystery in mushrooms and the dark, wet forest environment they grow in. As a colorist painter and having worked with a variety of color pigments, the world of natural dyes was foreign to me and opened up a whole different language and palette that is not possible to obtain in paint. Our work was made from nature, and became an extension of it, but also became subject to its forces.

MAKI: I have been practicing natural dyeing, so I never thought of using anything else to create artworks for this project, Up in the Air. It was important for me to use only natural materials to represent our artworks, four seasons. Also, I wanted to show impermanence of the natural colors. Everything goes back to earth to the residue level!

What other sustainable methods/sourcing do you use in your textile process?

AMANDA: My main work is mainly oil paint on canvas. In doing this work with Maki, I realized that rabbit skin glue, which is used for sizing canvas, is also a sustainable material. We ended up using some of this to stiffen the fabric in addition to beeswax for making mobile shapes from textiles. There were also many earth pigments that I use for painting when mixed with a binder that Maki used directly to dye fabrics, like red iron oxide. I think that indigo is the hardest pigment to have in paint. There are “indigo” paints, but none of it comes close to the complex luminous blue that one obtains through indigo dye.

MAKI: Amanda went to consignment stores and fab scraps to get used clothes and fabrics to use for our project. I got many fabrics from my artist friends who were just giving away. All the threads are plant based fiber. Also we used mochi rice and rabbit skin glue in order to avoid plastic glue.

PHOTOS BY SAORI ICHIKAWA-WHITE @ICHIGRAPHY

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Can you reflect on your energy in 2020, and where you want to direct it in 2021? How do you plan to create something new and sustainable this year? What are some upcoming projects you’re excited about?

AMANDA: In 2020 my energy was mostly geared towards survival. This meant surviving the complex dynamics Covid-19 had imposed on us, the change in social interactions with family, friends, and my community, unemployment, mental health, the uncertain and tense political and social climate, loss, and coming to terms that the panicked energy of the pandemic would be a precursor to a world faced with the stresses brought on by climate change. In 2021, I’d like to be a phoenix and divert my energy into making changes for our current landscape. Engaging in meditation has been a welcome addition to my life and our project engaged in different types of meditation through dyeing textiles, balancing mobiles, working together, and creating a sound environment with a composer to engage our audience further with group meditation as a complement to experiencing our work.

MAKI: 2020 was the most “roller coaster” year I have ever experienced in my life. I was just so anxious and scared for a long time. However, Amanda and I pur-

sued our plans to create art works together. We were persistent. The plan changed so much, but we filmed our works and finished with amazing online events.

I feel like I became mentally stronger and I could be fearless and flexible as an artist. I would like to create something to do with Asian Hate crimes happening in the world. I still don’t know what I can create as a natural dye artist, but It is very important for me to do something as an artist.

What feelings and energies do you associate with burnt orange?

AMANDA: Burnt orange is one of my favorite colors.

For me each color contains a personality and a history and I like to imagine that when yellow and red meet they start to engage in a dance fueled by fire, and thus the character layers of burnt orange start to unravel. I think of warmth and the earth, something I’d like to feel close to my skin in slow sensual movements, but mixed in with the staccatos of a flickering flame and the anticipation of the taste of sweet caramel. It’s a color that implies expansiveness and takes up space like the sky and encloses around your body like a warm blanket.

MAKI: Big, powerful energy, but also beautiful and calming.

Do you have any comments on wildfires, or how you strive in your work to combat natural disasters that are amplified by climate change?

paints, glue, plastics and synthetic fibers. I want other artists to know that it is possible to create artworks not using those.

What resources would you recommend to readers who want to learn more about sustainable textile consumption?

AMANDA: The wildfires we have seen in California, Brazil, and Australia are devastating and I feel pain for the loss of people’s homes, livelihoods, and our natural resources destroyed. I don’t know that I can combat natural disasters through my work, but I do think about how I can be a more responsible citizen and engage more in community action.

AMANDA: Fabscrap in NYC is a great resource of textile consumption.

MAKI: I have been taking webinars from Re:Source(d) Fashion @resourced.fashion. I've been learning about new fiber technology, natural dye studios in the US, regenerative farming. Full of great information!

At the same time I find wildfires hypnotizing because of the colors and emotions they stir within me, which comes through in the colors I choose to paint with.

@fibershed_ is doing very fascinating regenerative farming, education, and is a great community for makers!

@worldhopeforum Very inspiring talks about innovative arts and designs from all over the world.

MAKI: Some wildfires happen because of unbalanced nature we as humans caused. One of the reasons why I create mobiles is to show how important it is to have a balance in everything. I try to create biodegradable artworks that wouldn’t require toxic dye,

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Any other final thoughts?

AMANDA: I would like to use mycelium as a material in my future work. Mycelium will exist as a future replacement for styrofoam in packaging and leather in clothing and perhaps even in furniture! As our 21st Century world habits consume products and discards them almost as fast as they’re created, using sustainable materials is going to become essential to keep up with this level of consumption unless capitalism slows down and reverts to making durable goods.

However, artworks exist in a different space as they are not consumed and discarded as quickly as say a piece of disposable furniture. Therefore, I would say that the timeless quality of works when made with biodegradable materials is more akin to the world of performance art where documentation and re-enactments become key to its meaning rather than the object itself. I would like to use mycelium to create objects meant for a performance that will question our changing landscape and habits as a result of climate change and the pandemic. It would be a nomadic world without a solid physical space, immensely interconnected like mycelium roots, but constantly in flux like a mobile, and escaping natural disasters. We would grow a chair from mushrooms that would disintegrate back into the Earth after it no longer served its purpose. We would work with nature rather than impose ourselves on her. Artists would continue observing, studying, and interacting with her, as we have always done, leaving timeless objects, marks, and thoughts for others to consider in the far future. @amandamilletsorsa @tomorrow_is_always_new amanda-atelier.com tomorrowisalwaysnew.com

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KAY CIROCCO @GRLZRU1E FILM PHOTOGRAPHY

F A C T

F

A

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NIFC.GOV

FASHIONREVOLUTION.ORG

The public plays a valuable role in preventing wildfires. The national average of human-caused wildfires comprises 87 PERCENT of all wildfire occurrences every year.

Most of these fires can be prevented.

Cotton makes up approximately 26% of all fibre used in the fashion and textiles industry, and cotton crops take up about 2.5% of all arable land on Earth. What’s more, cotton represents the MAIN SOURCE OF INCOME for up to 1 BILLION PEOPLE, of which 100 million are farmers. With this in mind, we know that cotton is at the core of fashion’s social and environmental footprint.

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ARTICLE BY FASHION REVOLUTION & FAIRTRADE INDIA

Danielle Petti How does your submission relate to the themes of Issue 003: fire, sustainable fashion, energy, and burnt orange?

I’m drawn to prehistoric art and art practices, making something beautiful with the materials of the earth without having an impact on the beauty from which we draw inspiration. I collect rocks and forage sources of pigment in my environment. I pulverize these materials by hand and turn them into paint. The most important part of the process for me is knowing that we humans, the earth, and my works are all made of the same stuff.

The burnt, bright orange that you see in these abstract landscapes are made from terracotta rubble found on construction sites of Turin, where I reside.

The process of making these terracotta bricks (which are a hundred years old in this city) is by burning/ cooking the rocks. At these construction sites, the buildings are being demolished and transformed.

From the rubble, I picked out pieces which I think something new can come out of; giving new life to the discarded materials.

What do you hope readers and viewers will take away from your submission?

I hope people will become more conscious of where their art materials come from and how they are made.

I hope they also feel the same interconnectedness with the planet that drives me to create these works.

@lightandpigment imagesbydee.ca/lightandpigment Earth pigment painting

“FROM THE RUBBLE, I PICKED OUT PIECES WHICH I THINK SOMETHING NEW CAN COME OUT OF; GIVING NEW LIFE TO THE DISCARDED MATERIALS”

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UV A POEM WRITTEN BY KAY CIROCCO

DANIEL SWEETING

ultra violence in the streets radiating dark planks hot stinking rocks blood bastes hard blows taste on the asphalt illuminating long ways wicks up right breaking through faces pummels into plume fights flicker light a flashlight low battery

I had a very large workload and this caused me to be “Burnt out.”

In addition my utilities bill was the most it had ever been because I was using my computer in tandem with several other appliances, generating so much energy, and growing the size of my carbon footprint. sweetingart.com

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Kit Parks

chance to try it. I am working to incorporate natural dyes more into my art practice, and in general to take control over the materials I use and the impact I have on the world around me.

The cotton and silk fabrics in these sculptures were dyed with a mix of rusted metal (waste produced from a metals shop) and Procion MX dyes.

Driving home on the highway, my eyes bounce between cars, billboards, construction zones, and the plant life lining the road. I think about how humans have overtaken this landscape, populating the terrain with bright & contrasting signs that disappear into the horizon. Not a view to be found without an ad or urgent traffic message. I wonder about the environment we’ve built for ourselves, formed of ugly and destructive materials, seemingly too established to fix now. Roads and buildings tearing through our forests, plastics poisoning the water, exhaust fumes thick in the air.

THE INSTALLATION PICTURED IS A STUDY FOR A LARGER PROJECT USING CLOTH ROAD SIGNS TO IMAGINE A BUILT ENVIRONMENT IN HARMONY WITH THE NATURAL WORLD.

COULDN’T WE HAVE BEEN LESS DISRUPTIVE? CAN WE GROW AND COMMUNICATE WITH EACH OTHER WITHOUT DESTROYING EVERYTHING IN OUR PATH? OF COURSE THE ANSWER TO BOTH QUESTIONS IS YES, IF WE CARE TO.

Kit Parks is an artist based in Hamtramck, MI, working primarily in textile crafts but also sculpture, photography, drawing, and performance.

They are figuring out what it means to make art in a late capitalist society in the midst of a climate crisis, grappling with themes of power and violence, gender, and human impact on the environment.

I’d been wanting to have a go at rust dyeing for a while when I saw the theme for Issue 3 of the Clearline Zine, so it seemed like the perfect

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@GENDER_DISASTER FIBER SCULPTURE (COTTON, SILK, RUST, PROCION MX DYE, STEEL)

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S I LVA N A S M I T H Animals, teeth, insects, eggs, and tea keep me motivated. During the start of the pandemic I began printmaking at home with recycled Styrofoam containers. I also began dyeing paper with natural materials (flowers, rust, spices, leaves, etc.) A lot of my art focuses on relationships, and recollection.

What do you hope readers and viewers will take away from your submission?

I hope they feel heat. I hope they think of animals in their landscape.

This piece is about fire and sustainability. I originally started making art of vultures when I’d see them outside of my house. In my mind, vultures live in the desert (hence the incorporation of fire). It was odd to see them so close to a residential area. They’re incredibly beneficial to the environment. They’re scavengers and help get rid of waste. At the front of my apartment complex live around 20-30 black vultures.

These are native to Florida. They choose to live in a parking lot near the apartment because of how much trash collects at the community compactor. It overfills and they tear apart the bags to get what’s inside. This had me thinking about the relationship between humans and animals. We create more and more problems without much consideration of how it will effect the surrounding ecosystem. she/her @eggexplorer Printmaking

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Er i

n

g i z n a K

Using rich gold, orange, and red colors and stitching with solid colors creates a feeling of flatness and stillness in each embroidery. I hope readers and viewers will consider the role time plays in creating this type of art, the slow and deliberate placement of each stitch, and how this contrasts with the speed and fury of wildfires/fast fashion.

How does your submission relate to the themes of Issue 003: fire, sustainable fashion, energy, and burnt orange?

I reflected on my own experiences with wildfires while creating my work. The slowness of embroidering is a wonderful medium for meditation; in opposition to fast fashion and the rapid speed of production and consumption within the industry — and the speed at which wildfires grow. I was living in Oregon this past summer when historic, record-shattering fires raged across the state. I stayed inside for 12 days straight, and the sky was often orange, ash falling, the sun a red glowing orb.

I drew upon that experience to create these two pieces. The larger hoop displays embroidered cut-outs reminiscent of fireweed, a flower that blooms across hillsides after fires, and the second hoop features the sun, moon, a mountain, and water. Time passes strangely in a land choked with smoke, it’s perpetually twilight. The vividness of the water provides the eye some relief, and offers up some hope that the earth can regenerate as we grapple with and address unsustainable textile practices.

My mixed media art connects nature and human brilliance and resilience using embroidery, drawing, and painting. I live and work in Detroit, MI and grew up in a mountain town in Oregon — and I’m inspired by both places. I shift between drafting and planning my work and improvising, layering, and expanding in detail. The pace of embroidering slows down my creation, encouraging me to approach each piece with intention and care. I want to convey a sense of joy and nostalgia with my art by using traditional crafting techniques of the past to create a feeling of community and connection.

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she/her/hers Detroit, MI @erin.skye.design Embroidery

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F A C T FASHION REVOLUTION MCKINSEY & CO., FASHION ON CLIMATE, 2020 REPORT

BELLIES OF TINY FIRES A POEM WRITTEN BY JULIA KOOI TALEN SHE/HER

billow a crooked line of yellow, the distance of our cortex. the line is as long as a baby doe’s hop a black bear’s breath a cardinal’s dotted flight from oak to cottonwood. it’s as long as the pine skeleton, the aspen root network, each rock speaking sonic to another.

The fashion industry emits about the same quantity of greenhouse gases per year as the entire economies of France, Germany, and the UK combined.

as long as the trickling snow melt the veins under our sunned skin, the strips of indigo clouds. there is a bucket of ash on my balcony the color of fog that i’m too scared to dump out. there is a hawk in the sprinklered park, searching. i whispering to her;

her eyes tell me about the smoke.

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LARA CARBONARO

BACTERIAL CELLULOSE

I am a design student based in Cologne, Germany.

Since my first semester, I have followed my interests in the field of biodesign. Namely, the creation of nature for humans, but without excluding nature. The integration of nature starts with the design process and follows in every step until the end of a product’s life.

I hope that readers and viewers will accept more and more materials made from nature. I can understand that the word “bacteria” can lead to a negative opinion of some materials, but we have to understand that the relationship with nature is a symbiosis and the “good” bacteria I am talking about don’t have to be fought.

Bacterial cellulose is related to the topic because it is linked to a sustainable, biodegradable leather substitute. It has such awesome material properties that it doesn’t have to be seen as replacing leather and can be considered as a smart material itself. The material is made thanks to the fermentation process of the Kombucha Tea. If black tea is used, the result is a cellulose which has all the gradients of brown to orange. Translucency is a material property, so if you hold the material up to the light it shows its beauty. The shade is a bright color which remembers fire and can be associated with the power of nature. @lara_design_proj Bacterial cellulose material research and product

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STRANGE ANGLES WR I T T E N

BY

S AR AH

R O SE

C O H N

B E N N E T T

S Y R AC US E ,

N Y

By way of rain, soundless waves of mourning are seeped forever into a single plot of land. Someone’s open vowels now an amalgam of eulogy above wet ash and only Tuesday, June 11, I have left behind a dead friend. Here is the water, and water’s ambiguous surface, wearing reflections of flower-gardens in the sky. I cast myself into them and time unfolds into long spatial planes. I move everything to where it isn’t.

The house is composed and still as an untouched corner of bed. No longer does my sense of the world lie in the world, no longer are cascades of myself strung to sturdy beams. Here is a time, before the clouds which brought the rain, when there was one light to the world, the dancing limbs of Aldebaran hurdled over one another, predatory, reaching toward. Now the second flame of sunrise. When in the sterile room I am stuck to the odds of someone who did not die. Here are Beth’s sister’s eyes, third flame, threaded with heavy dew as serpents facing down slick, glassy cheeks. Here are the paintings, convex from heat, living and not. Things now incohesive under blue sky, dragged out from a different world not without distinction. Portals into uninhabitable planes of space.

I examine everything from strange angles because I am alive. For miles, flocks of apologetic wings propel in reverse. Tall glasses of water line sidewalks across continents only half-latched into dirt. Here are the raw gums of a space, beneath the house that was once the world’s only light. Two dogs and a cat died with Beth, left in locked crates or hiding smartly in the closet. For weeks we could not find the cat’s body. I walked by to call for her, betting on a secret pact between Gibbons and God. Good to say her name, to savor the single, heavy beat after. Then wait for the gentle stir to begin of all noises not Gibbons. All noises which I run toward and leave behind in pink-orange din.

Lately I have to think of fire as a million well-intentioned suns carrying the world and bad dreams as small prayers for the dead. Everything in strange angles.

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LIT

TL

R E V I R E Lisa-Marie Price is a London based artist that explores the connection between nature, people, and place. She looks at how we interact with each other and our world, and develops work that portrays the intricacies between them. Her methodical style is created using handmade watercolour sourced from pigment that she forages on her journeys.

This painting was created using pigment collected in North Carolina, USA. Both the colour and its origin are linked to the wildfires of the area. Over the years Western North Carolina has been struck hard by wildfires due to changing climate, drought, and higher temperatures.

This, in part, can be attributed to human-induced climate changes that are the result of manufacturing methods and water usage. ‘Little River’ was created last year during lockdown and brings me hope of a brighter future.

Ma rie

Pri ce

I HOPE READERS WILL BECOME MORE CONSCIOUS OF THE RESOURCES THEY USE AND CONSUME, THINK ABOUT HOW THEY CAN REDUCE THEIR CARBON FOOTPRINT AND TAKE MORE CARE OF OUR PLANET THROUGH THEIR ACTIONS.

C RE

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Y B D ATE

a s Li

she/her London, UK @theworkshopn4 lisamarieprice.co.uk Painting: Handmade Watercolour from foraged earth

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THE DOGWOOD DYER AN INTERVIEW WITH LIZ SPENCER

BY SARAH SPARKMAN Liz Spencer, the Dogwood Dyer, is a California-based natural dyer and creator.

I knew I wanted to interview Liz and share her work, not only for her creations, knowledge, and experience in the field of sustainable textiles, but because she is one of the women to whom I personally owe my ardor for and development in the craft. It is an honor and a joy to highlight Liz Spencer’s work in Issue 003 of Clearline.

But first, I’d like to start off with a bit of background on how I was introduced to Liz’s work and what it means to me to discuss textiles with her. I think this is a powerful testimony of women showing women the way, women being guiding lights: empowering and securing each other. This is an important story to share.

Both my grandmothers are fiber artists. Exposure to their work initiated an evolving interest in textiles that led me to explore the fashion world as a freshman in college. My Aunt’s friend, Maggie McGrath, who was working in the fashion industry at the time, let me stay with her in New York City for fashion week 2015. I traveled to visit her for a week-long look behind-the-scenes. This experience left me feeling humbled, surprised, and, quite frankly, confused: I couldn’t understand the unnecessary intensity of the industry and the wasteful process that was the norm. On the last day of my trip, Maggie brought me to a Brooklyn warehouse where we took the elevator to the top floor. I found myself sur-

Can you describe a bit about yourself and your title as the ‘Dogwood Dyer’?

rounded by samples of fabrics that had been naturally dyed with plants. Overwhelmed with wonder, and instantly enthralled by the idea of such a clean process, my next steps in higher education and my personal artistic practice became centered around learning how sustainable fashion worked, practicing it, and seeking out skilled women in the craft whom I could become apprentice to.

What my business is, or what I do is kind of a three prong approach to natural dyes. The first being I occasionally do natural dye productions for designers that are interested in national dye application. Whether that be, immersion dyeing with tie dye effects or just solid color application - yardage dyeing. I’ve also done a tiny bit of yarn dying. And then most of what I do when I do collaborate with brands is garment dyeing. So I dye clothing that’s all natural fibers because natural dyes have an affinity with natural fibers, more so than synthetic fibers. That’s my first sort of component of the Dogwood Dyer. Another component is as an educator and a teacher, teaching workshops and natural dyes. The last component is natural dye kits, which is also educational, of course. So people learn natural dyes through a kit where they can have thoughtfully and thoroughly explained reasoning for all of the steps in the process. I released the kit last year and I’m hoping to do a couple of other colorways in the years to come and hopefully one more colorway this year. I’m working with a farmer in Idaho who grows flowers. So I’m hoping that she can grow enough of another dye stuff this year!

I continued to follow Liz’s work over social media.

Two years later I saw spots open up for one of her workshops at the Brooklyn Grange rooftop garden in New York City. My aunt and I road tripped to New York, where I finally met Liz, and learned face-to-face her take on the craft of dyeing. More than that, I had the chance to talk to her one-onone. She was quick to bring up a friend she had in Detroit, Meg Navoy, the now owner of Rosemarine Textiles. Upon returning to Detroit, I started to work under Meg, and released the first issue of Clearline soon thereafter. This is the long way of remarking on why it’s so special to feature an interview with Liz, my first great inspiration, my first introduction to sustainable fashion. It’s amazing the way that one opportunity can lead to another when we give each other the chance.

Have you had any experiences with wildfires? Living in California, and formerly Seattle — how do these climate issues impact the relevance and current nature of your work? In other words, why are sustainable textiles and natural dyes so important in today’s climate?

I gave Liz a call for our interview and received a warm welcome — we went on to catch up about the last few years of our lives, ever since the 2017 workshop where we met, as well as our lives this past year during the pandemic. Liz welcomed a baby girl, moved to a new house, and started several textile projects. When it’s safe, she’s looking forward to getting back into her textile ‘love language’ natural dye workshops. Catching up with Liz was a pleasure, and we were both grateful to return to talk of textiles and creativity a year into the pandemic. I’m so happy to share some snippets of what she’s up to with all of you.

Thankfully, I have not personally, but I’ve had friends, who’ve lost homes and I’ve had multiple venues that I’ve worked with in the past that are no longer because of wildfires. Particularly the one in 2018, I believe it was, in and around North of Los Angeles and around Topanga. But I mean anybody who is in Southern California and then of course central Cal-

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ifornia and all the way up into Seattle and Canada understands the air quality effects with wildfires. One of the big reasons why we choose to live in Southern California is because it affords us the ability to be outside often. I can have an outdoor studio and work outdoors pretty much all year round. With bad air quality, especially like there was last year — last year I was pregnant and we were all going a little crazy inside our houses I'm sure. Even on top of that with the air quality being unsafe for kids, pregnant people, older people, anyone that has breathing issues. It’s incredible how much not being able to go outside affects us. I think we all understand that feeling after this year. So I think that has been the biggest effect for me personally — It’s just having those times when we really just can’t be outside because the air quality is so horrible. It directly relates to my work because I think the biggest environmental impact that my work using natural dyes has is the amount of water that I use.

In fact, during the first commission dye work that I

did when I was living in New York I made it a point to count how many gallons of water I was using in my process. I knew it was going to be a lot, but it actually really surprised me how much water I was using. Even though I was being mindful of how much water I used and trying to use less water while trying to recycle as much as possible and using low water techniques. But really there’s no way around it with natural dyes — it’s so water intensive just like a lot of synthetic dyes are, but even more so in a lot of cases because of the many different distinct processes. So with that, and also the fact that I grow a lot of my dyes too, and I really enjoy gardening and growing my own color, there’s even more water there, you know, my water footprint.

I do my best when I’m growing plants using permaculture practices, drip irrigation and mulch so I can have happy plants using as little water as possible.

My big dream I’m currently working on is to get my studio space ready to work where I can recycle my dye bath water as much as possible and even cap-

ture water, the little rain that we do get here in Southern California.

Climate change and fire — water being the opposition to fire is really scarce where I am. It’s particularly important that everyone, myself included, uses as little water as possible. Recycle it and be innovative around how we can reduce our water footprint. I would love to see more research into how to create natural dyes that use less water application. Potentially digital printing used using natural dyes. I would love to see modern science come together with natural dyes to solve a lot of water use problems.

One of the Issue 003 themes is: Burnt Orange.

What specific dyes do you like to use to get this color? What colors and energies do you associate with this color?

I love this color. It may be because there are so many iron oxides in soil and found on earth. Iron is the most common metal on earth. Anytime that you see a red-

dish brown, orange, clay earth or dirt, that’s an iron oxide. So maybe that’s why it’s such a pleasing and universally loved color. Madder Root is commonly used to get that whole range of oranges, pinkish salmon, all the way into burnt orange and then to red.

I always describe madder root as sort of the queen of natural dyes. It’s pretty indispensable for most natural dyers if they want to represent the whole spectrum of reds and oranges.

It’s very reliable in that it’s lightfast. It will serve the textile that you’re dyeing for quite awhile. It’s also UV resistant and wash resistant if supplied with mordant.

And then there’s a really special dye that I use here in Southern California: Eucalyptus. It’s local, but it’s not native — it’s from Australia. They were planted in Southern California I think in the late 19th century, the 1860s, with ideas that they could be a good timber tree — they really aren’t — but they’re still hanging around. So they’re everywhere. I either coordinate with whatever city I’m in to see when the

city is going to be trimming the trees so I can just take some leaves. People ask me why and I explain to them what color it can make — one particular type of eucalyptus tree it's called eucalyptus sideroxylon. It has a long leaf shape. It’s really easy to find because of the color of the bark — it’s also called red ironbark eucalyptus. It’s a really dark color, dark, almost black, deeply furrowed bark. So it’s really easy to spot and there’s plenty of them. If you use enough leaves and you extract it for a long enough time, you can get these incredible burnt oranges, close to red, pretty much red colors in particular. Lovely, lovely dye. Smells nice too. I love the way it smells! (My partner is not too keen on it. I’ll usually try and keep it outside because it can be such an overwhelming smell).

in southern California, because of a burn ban. We've been here for five plus years now and of course I'd never want to go against a rule for a good reason like that. But I physically cannot have an open fire in my studio because of that.

Can you talk a bit about your dried citrus project with naturally dyed beads?

I didn't actually have a plan to make those when I was dyeing the beads. It was kind of like multiple things coming together into a craft explosion of love. The citrus does have a deep story in that it comes from the Grove that we used to take care of that was part of my partner's family. We lived in that house when we first moved to California from New York to take care of the grove and take care of the house that my partner's grandmother had passed away in. We lived there for three years before it was sold. The 160 orange trees provided more than enough oranges for us.

I was constantly trying to figure out what to do with the oranges so I made so

I love introducing it especially in local dye classes. It’s special because there aren’t really many other places in the country where you can find eucalyptus trees. I think California is really one of the only States where they’re pretty common. many dried oranges!

One interesting thing back to the idea of fire is that a dream of mine as a Dyer, I hope to be able to have at one point in my life, a studio setting where I can actually have dye baths over an open fire and learn that skill of controlling the temperature of the dye bath — something that's not easy. It's something that's native people actually do and know how to do. I've never really been able to dye with pots over an open fire

I have a whole box. This year in particular, because I hadn’t been able to teach at all. I’m so used to teaching at least once a month and meeting new people and connecting to people. And it’s a really big part of my social engagement and happiness. So I made the dried citrus ornaments with the naturally dyed beads

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that I had been dyeing for the last year or so. Just tinkering around with other applications for natural dyes — things that I can do with my kids in particular.

I thought it would be nice to make the ornaments to send to friends that I would have seen, but that I didn’t — I sent them all out around the holidays.

quilt projects, particularly on social media, where people have been able to collaborate across States or across countries and come together and put lots of different people’s naturally dyed fabrics together in a quilt that then they then use this to raise money for nonprofits.

How do you plan to create something new and sustainable this year? What’s an upcoming project you’re excited about and how are you using that project to redirect your energy in 2021, after a year like 2020?

So it's not anything grandiose like that, but it is a small start for me to get back into the groove of making things such as my kits. I've been donating part of the profits of the natural dye kits to Samuel Bautista Lazo of Dixza Organic Rugs. He is a traditional Zapotec artist, weaver and farmer in Teotitlan Oaxaca Central Mexico who supports a whole village there.

Last year they were able to purchase marigolds to grow there with the money that I donated to them.

So that was really cool. I hope to be able to continue to support him with the sales of the kits. And then another thing that I'd love to at least start putting energy into for 2021 is making instructional videos on natural dyes so that people can learn from me, but

2021 is definitely not what I think anyone expected, but I was lucky that I was able to stay home with my kids. I didn’t create as much as I thought I would at home, but being pregnant — I took it as a gift to be at home and to relax since I really, as far as making things, I made much less in 2020 except — you know — I made a human haha.

This year in 2021, we moved and we’re in a new place.

I’m putting a lot of energy into my new space. Like I said, I’m doing my best to make it as sustainable as possible, figuring out water, catchment, and storage.

And then, hopefully figuring out another colorway with the natural dye kit and continuing to support the American farm growing marigolds for my kits. I started a project last year which I had dreamed of doing for years. I’ve got this mega natural dye scrap stash of fabric that I just keep collecting. I started making these scrapped panels, cutting fabric as little as possible, and just letting the pieces be the size that they roughly are. I wanted to create a garment. It might turn out to be a garment, but I’m actually just going to let it tell me what it wants to be.

It might end up being something more permanent like a window covering or something in my home.

Right now it’s just a personal project of my own fabric.

I’ve been really inspired to see other naturally dyed

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not necessarily have to be in person with me. And that's something, again, another I've been dreaming of doing for years. I think it will be valuable for me to offer as long as I am teaching natural dyes.

You always seem to be sharing your knowledge and your craft with your kids. Could you talk about that process with them and the overall importance of informing future generations on these topics?

When I’m working with my kids or young kids I try to make it as simple as possible and not over complicate it. I sort of let them take the lead, while we make the paints together.

I don’t say, “you can’t mix that color with that color”.

I just kind of let them figure it out by doing and not having a, ‘this is precious’ mentality. Although there is more work that goes into making the natural dyes, trying to let go of that. I think that’s a really good mentality to go into natural dyes with, for all people, not just kids, but for adults to keep that in

mind. Also particularly when they’re working with kids. It’s much more freeing. Of course there are ratios and recommendations for how much to use for this and that. I try to let the ratios, rules and measurements of natural dyes sit in the back of my head when I’m working with my kids. Dyes are important to continue to be taught because a lot of information has actually already been lost because so much focus has been put on synthetic dyes in the last 150 years at the advent of the scientific revolution. Synthetic dyes were synthesized and natural dyes went out of use. So a lot of that knowledge wasn’t kept in scale scenario. There’s also been much less scientific research. There’s much less scientific understanding of natural dyes because they just went out of popular use and industry hasn’t needed to research them. So we really are at a point now, where because there’s a want and a need for natural dyes from the consumer there’s a lot of space and possibility around optimization and research, which really needs to be done. So cultural heritage is probably the most important reason why, at least for application and fashion textiles, that natural dyes continue on.

land itself has been managed for thousands of years and had, and it had been managed responsibly.

Is there anything else you’d like to share related to the themes of Clearline Issue 003?

Botanical Colors feedback Fridays have been really wonderful for anyone interested in natural dyes. Every Friday they’ll interview someone in natural dyes and they’ve been doing that pretty much since the beginning of the pandemic. They’re all on their website for free.

Yeah, I did! I did want to mention that I picked up a really wonderful book that I started reading when I went to Yosemite last. I think it was 2018. It’s called Tending the Wild and it’s a really wonderful book written about native American knowledge and how they’ve managed California’s natural resources over time. And how there is a mentality, a European mentality, that this land was untouched and that it was virgin even before we set foot here. That it was wild, but in fact it wasn’t. It was actually being managed and wildfires in particular, prescribed fires that people knew, exactly when and how long they burn so that they could, to their benefit, go harvest the exact tubers? or routes that they were looking for. So the

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I think that there’s an understanding now finally in hopefully policy moving forward — government policy — that there’s a lot of knowledge that can be learned from Native people. And we could collaborate with native people and also give back land too.

Just how important it is that the land is being managed appropriately so that we really don’t literally burn the whole West.

RECOMMENDATIONS: Conscious Chatter: A really great podcast on sustainable fashion in general run by Kestrel Jenkins.

She’s amazing.

The Natural Dye podcast: Just started last year. I think there may be three interviews now, but I’m really looking forward to seeing the direction that that’s going. The two gals who started it are really keen on being as inclusive as possible about the story of natural dyes.

The Detox Campaign from Greenpeace: A good resource to learn more about the ill effects of chemical dyes.

Kate Fletcher’s newest work — Earth Logic: It’s free to download. It focuses on putting earth first as opposed to industry. It addresses what needs to be done within the climate emergency. Because I think it’s now accepted that the timeframe we have for running the effects is about a decade and that figure comes from 2018. So even less than a decade now.

It’s a wonderful resource that’s not too long. It’s just enough information and involves the government as well as consumers and makers.

Liz currently has open spots for virtual workshops!

@thedogwooddyer thedogwooddyer.com

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GROWN UP FIRES A POEM WRITTEN BY JULIA KOOI TALEN SHE/HER

as children we made planets

on playgrounds

balancing twigs, piling pebbles

sculpting castles for fairies & bugs

& merry on the swingset, we kicked up mulch watched the straw fly up close to bluebird skies

jeganmones Megan is an artist living in Pittsburgh, PA who goes by jeganmones. She creates minimal line art with her index finger on her laptop’s track pad.

She chose to draw a moon moth to represent the nature affected by the fires and added a burnt orange circle to represent the sun. @jegan__mones jeganmones.com Digital Art

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jetstreamed clouds

everything smelled like honeysuckle,

moss

and worms. we wanted to get closer to the sky, so we

twisted the chains of our swings,

ding, ding crink like tetherball, we pinched our finger lines in the metal,

the librations turned ember

and our slides became pipelines, the blue

birds snowed from the clouds,

and everything began to crackle like the computer fireplace

we watch together

on Christmas.

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Caroline

Kaufman

she/her Brooklyn, NY @carolinekaufman carolinekaufmanstudio.com

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Besjana Kryeziu Besjana Kryeziu is an artist-painter from Kosovo, who is currently living in Belgium.

The techniques she uses are oil colors, acrylics, and watercolor. She created more than 10 cycles of paintings. Currently Besjana is working on ‘’Women World’’ and ‘’Cats Kingdom’’. She uses a palette knife, creating some regular and irregular shapes, texture, lines and always tries to give a message through her paintings. Besjana’s paintings are characterized by pure color, short and long strokes.

Her biggest inspirations are traveling, reading, nature, photography, and music. Her art expresses the world of color.

MODELING ACRYLIC ON PAPER, 30X40CM, 2021

What do you hope readers and viewers will take away from your submission?

I hope that these paintings convey the good energy I had during their realization.

How does your submission relate to the themes of Issue 003: fire, sustainable fashion, energy, and burnt orange?

I worked on the cycle of dedicated women for one month, expressing the world of her beauty, fashion, shapes, power, profession, courage, motherhood, figuration, soul, overthinking, responsibilities, simplicity, confidence. So this theme inspired me to create these new paintings with more fire, describing fired soul and mind, and the wish to stay on the same energy for realizing every dream that we have.

OVERTHINKING ACRYLIC ON PAPER, 30 X 40CM, 2021

“Women must appreciate her body, mind and soul”.

BEAUTY SHAPES ACRYLIC ON PAPER, 30 X 40CM, 2021

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@artworkbesjana Acrylic on paper

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WALKING THROUGH DREAMS ACRYLIC ON PAPER, 30 X 40CM, 2021

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THE GOD COLLAGE NUMBER NINE WRITTEN BY ELIJAH SPARKMAN @ELIJAHSPARKMAN20

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God was doing a Sudoku.

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Black pen in hand. On a throne. Trying to get the numbers right.

And then the armadillo appeared. It was a round armadillo. Probably a foot long.

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It was cute and its nose was snout and thin. It had a little belly.

And then another armadillo appeared.

And then another.

And God said: What are you all doing here? Why are there armadillos appearing

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And then the birds appeared, and with them a cloud of black smoke, and a smell

that touched God’s nostril.

Oh, and then God heard some coughing, some coughing that came from the koalas, which are known to cough.

The koalas coughed, and then, of course, the kangaroos appeared.

The kangaroos bounced off of the walls and ran in circles. They were like an

At this point there were even frogs and reptiles and insects around, too.

People. Some, yes.

God thumbed the newspaper. Bent one leg over another. Scratched his left ear.

It was hard to think with all of these animals in the room, but if anyone could do

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He was scanning for a three.

He was scanning for a 3

Eyes flicker across the page.

And dance themselves into golden bows.

All half <3’ed.

Like the ones you know.

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3

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God said: This is too much. Absolutely too much. Why are all of these animals

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A toucan, beautiful bird that it is, then spoke up in an Australian accent to

answer God.

But the toucan’s voice was parched and the toucan could only utter one word.

The word was: Water.

And water there was.

All of the animals sat around in a circle and lifted claws and paws up to mouths

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appearing in my home? Like, for real this time?

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adventure. They were like Cedar Point. A Roller Coaster of a mammal.

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it, it was He. He trusted Himself like that. A very, very focused God.

in my living room? In the room that I live in? Why? Why is this happening?

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and beaks. They sipped out of glass glasses and satiated themselves. It was eternal.

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AYOBAMI ADELAYE Nigerian born multi-style artist with over 5 years experience in digital and traditional art. Adelaye creates most of his works with bright acrylic colors, with an often dramatic approach. He borders between conceptual and expressionism, exploring abstract and figurative expressions and sometimes merging both.

His multiple style approach is a core of his practice as he considers himself an adventurer.

His imaginations inspired him to become an artist.

His works are just that: vivid windows into rich, imaginative worlds. Often concept driven, Adelaye drives his ideas to their extremities, exploring (and sometimes satirizing) themes such as love, romance, envy, and desire. Pulsing with deep reds and dominated by primary-colored acrylics, Adelaye’s works are sharply theatrical, full of drama and emotion.

How does your submission relate to the themes of Issue 003: fire, sustainable fashion, energy, and burnt orange?

The abstract work expresses a moody energy — sunsets. And the color scheme relates to the theme of the issue. @a.adelaye

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Molly Eddington I am a photographer and multimedia artist. My personal work mainly focuses on navigating today’s political atmosphere and highlighting nature as a tool for healing.

When I took this photograph it was a time of growth and renewal for me. I hope that viewers will be able to feel my connection to nature from this photo.

How does your submission relate to the themes of Issue 003: fire, sustainable fashion, energy, and burnt orange?

I took this photo while I was living in southern California. During my time living in the Mojave Desert and traveling around it, I learned so much about the how today’s climate is effecting the desert. It has made me more passionate — spending so much time in America’s national parks while being environmentally conscious and sharing what I know with others because we are all in this together. @mollyeddington mollyeddington.com Photography, Digital and 35mm Film

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F A C T C2ES.ORG

e m ma sc h u ltz Wildfire risk depends on a number of factors, including temperature, soil moisture, and the presence of trees, shrubs, and other potential fuel. All these factors have strong direct or indirect ties to climate variability and climate change.

Climate change enhances the drying of organic matter in forests (the material that burns and spreads wildfire), and has doubled the number of large fires between 1984 and 2015 in the western United States.

@ART_AND_PROSE_BY_EMMA_ROSE EMMARSCHULTZ.COM COLLAGE ART

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Claire Weaver-Zeman The uncomfortable, strange feelings of transitional states, and the awkwardness and anxiety that exist in these spaces interests me. Lines cut from mylar stencils emphasize shape and create moving, layered, images that operate in an illogical, constantly fluctuating landscape. Sometimes strange, anxious creatures populate the peripheries of these spaces, sometimes figures are caught mid-transformation, as they turn into animals or hybridized beasts.

Mythology and narrative, specifically myths featuring goddesses and composite creatures, form the foundation of my practice. I re-imagine tales that address transformation and growth in ways that empower people, and lift visual ideas from books, movies, myths, and my own environment. My work also explores ancient symbols and ideas, especially those of ancient Rome, and how they manifest in contemporary American culture.

What do you hope readers and viewers will take away from your submission?

I hope they take away a feeling of transformation and feel empowered to change their world for the better.

To me, these figures personify natural phenomena such as fire or volcanoes, and embody their simultaneously destructive and creative energy. Forest fires both burn away foliage and create fertile soil that encourages new growth. Natural disasters caused by global warming, such as these ever more frequent forest fires, can certainly be destructive, but can also act as a wake-up call, a catalyst for change, and inspire people to work harder to protect the environment.

she/her/hers Swampscott, MA @cweaverzeman claire-weaverzeman.squarespace.com

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KAY CIROCCO @GRLZRU1E FILM PHOTOGRAPHY

We’d love to hear a bit about Not Sorry Goods and the partnership that started this sustainable goods company! What is the mission of your company?

“DO GOOD, NOT SORRY” This simple mantra underscores our mission at Not Sorry — do good things & leave the world a better place. By focusing on eco-friendly materials & locally-sourced goods, our intention is to create a more sustainable, inclusive & equitable future for all.

How do you practice sustainability in your creations? Vintage? Second hand?

Not Sorry Goods is a responsible + inclusive retailer. We’re all about looking good, feeling good and doing good - unapologetically.

Co-founders Dy-Min Johnson and Jessica Minnick met at a kickboxing class. After sparring it out, they quickly bonded over mutual interests and found inspiration in one another. Their friendship blossomed into a business when an inside joke sparked a simple idea for a bad-ass crop top design, and eventually led to the creation of the Not Sorry brand. From humble beginnings of sketching designs on a napkin sitting at Jess’s kitchen table, Not Sorry Goods exists as a reminder to never apologize for being yourself.

We take pride in consciously reducing our eco-footprint by practicing sustainability in our sourcing, production, shipping, inventory & operations processes.

ECO-FRIENDLY APPAREL Balancing accessibility, inclusivity & eco-friendly all at once! We look for brands that use recycled materials in their fabric content and have inclusive sizing.

From organic cotton to recycled polyester, we are always re-evaluating garment sourcing to ensure that the qualities of earth-friendly, affordable and inclusive are being met.

UPCYCLED VINTAGE & DEADSTOCK We love scouring our local donation centers for unique pieces and vintage finds. We wash, repair, and prepare them for some textile magic. Each item is creatively transformed and given a new life.

PHOTO BY DANI LISI @DANIELALISI

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“MAKE ONLY WHAT YOU NEED” In an order to avoid excess, we only make what we absolutely need. What this means we don’t have piles of floor-ready inventory lying around. We consciously create each piece and each order. All orders are made-to-order but ship out within 3-5 business days.

Because we print, embroider, crop & sew everything in-house we are able to provide highly customizable products but with a quick turnaround.

ZERO-WASTE In our effort to close the manufacturing loop, we recycle every scrap of material in our production process. Many of our accessories are made from t-shirt & sweater scraps that are turned into cute things like scrunchies, make-up remover cotton squares and patches. When a scrap is too small to use for anything, we put them in our big collection bin and send them to a textile recycling facility where they are turned into fibers for new garments or used for insulation. This means less fabric ending up in landfills.

With our theme being wildfires — can you talk a bit about if you have any personal experiences with wildfires and/OR how the occurrence of wildfires/other natural disasters that have been amplified by climate change has affected how you approach your work?

What are other initiatives you take as a company to ensure sustainable production?

value in order to provide support to those communities. When people talk about climate change they frequently focus on the planet and what we can do to save it. We want to save the planet too but know that aiding people is what we should really be discussing if we want to see real change.

ECO-FRIENDLY MATERIAL PACKAGING We use eco-mailers that are 100% recyclable and all of our marketing materials are made of recycled paper. We also save packaging that we get to use for orders that contain fragile items. We even save all of our thread spools and discarded embroidery thread to use for art projects and home décor!

LOCALLY SOURCED GOODS The brands we carry are all local and our friends!

We have a personal relationship with each brand and pick up directly from the makers — so there’s no overseas travel or excessive carbon emissions involved in the exchange!

What resources would you recommend to readers wanting to learn about sustainable textile consumption?

Can you reflect on your energy in 2020, and where you want to direct it in 2021? How do you plan to create something new and sustainable this year? What are some upcoming projects you’re excited about?

Although 2020 was a turbulent year it really gave us the opportunity to think about the future and how our business can be a part of creating social change.

So much so that we’ve decided to commit to a community initiative every quarter. Last year we donated funds to bail out BLM protesters, clean up local parks, and sponsored beds for homeless youth. So far in 2021, we’ve been able to partner with Gathering Coffee Co. to provide funds for the Detroit Community Fridge. And we’re currently working on another project to benefit our LGBTQIA+ community. We’re looking forward to creating more good and putting our money where our mouth is to see the changes we desire in our community.

I recently read the Patagonia book Let My People Go Surfing and I’m pretty obsessed with it. Definitely a good read!

Any other final thoughts?

Start where you are and use what you have. We can all make a positive impact on our community and planet. Here’s a link to some new zero waste threads we added to our shop: notsorrygoods.com/collections/new-arrivals

As far as designing and new products go, we’ve become pretty obsessed with using every single scrap in our studio. We’re upping the upcycling (haha) by creating dresses, home goods, and lifestyle goods.

We’ve added upcycled facial squares from t-shirt scraps, scrunchies from defect sweaters, and even formulated a unisex scent (all local btw). We’re excited to push ourselves to be even more creative by forcing ourselves to use what we already have.

Natural disasters have really encouraged us to focus even more on keeping our partners and collaborators as local as possible. Ordering materials and supplies from afar is made much more difficult with the consistency of natural disasters. I’d also say that frequently getting our supplies delivered isn’t really sustainable.

So we limit orders to out of state suppliers as much as possible.

@notsorrygoods notsorrygoods.com

I’d also say that we’re seeing how climate change impacts the communities that are already vulnerable most. We’ve decided to make giving back a core

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CUANDO NO HAY RESPETO WHEN THERE IS NO RESPECT Created by Bea Montero

I am a spanish musician and collagist.

My collages seek to create evocations, emotional trips to surreal worlds to reach the deepest part of oneself.

With few elements I like to create a “less is more” graphic that contains a great background if you stop to observe.

I hope that readers will stop to think about reality with this theme.

I want to reflect on how we destroy nature — burning it, turning the earth into fire with an excess of unnecessary products.

Madrid, Spain @paperscollage Collage

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NFPA.ORG

DOSOMETHING.ORG

HOW TO COMPLETELY EXTINGUISH AN OPEN CAMPFIRE: Use the “drown, stir and feel” method: drown the fire with water, then stir around the fire area with your shovel to wet any remaining embers and ash. Be sure to turn wood and coals over and wet all sides. Move some dirt onto the fire site and mix thoroughly to fully smother it.

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“CROWN FIRES” are spread by wind moving quickly across the tops of trees. “RUNNING CROWN FIRES” are even more dangerous because they burn extremely hot, travel rapidly, and can change direction quickly.

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Rebecca Ledbetter My work deals with the abstraction of gesture, color, layers, and shadows to push and pull the space within my canvas to create an artistic narrative. In my pieces, I seek to understand the human relationships and interactions we encounter and experience every day, and how those connections shape us. Sometimes dreamy, sometimes more serious, I utilize inspirations from beloved novels, memories, the intensity of communication and, the narratives around us to guide my work. Although I predominantly work in oil painting and encaustic painting, I will utilize mediums in mixed media, photography, and sculpture, depending on the necessary narrative.

shine a light on creating a better world. I want them to take a moment when seeing my piece to briefly remember who they were a year ago and how their choices (or lack therefore of ) continue to guide their lives. What would they have done, who would they have called, what life would they have lived?

With the pandemic, the cultural shifts, and the devastating environmental blows that 2020 has dealt us, cultivating my creative practice has become even more of a necessity. Artwork can help guide our emotions and the impact of what we’re living with everyday in a form that can relate to everyone and speak of these intangible issues in a tangible way. With the mindset of sustainability and the burnt orange, I wanted to emulate something that felt alive and calm at the same time, that could be viewed as if the piece was breathing, much like fire does. I also wanted to bring into this the idea of sustainability, without taking up too much space. I ended up creating this oil painting on a business card sized canvas paper, utilizing as few materials as possible to minimize waste.

I wanted to showcase the passionate burnt orange for my viewers to feel truly alive, sparking ideas of how we can continue to better the worlds and environments we inhibit everyday.

My goal in creating these works is to become an artistic narrator, creating an emotional response in the ways the colors and gestures float across the canvas, in a carefully curated way, much the same way an author writes text. Creating a narrative work for me allows for this story to be told. My hope in creating work in such a way is that my viewers can connect their own unique experiences to my work, creating personal connections with them.

I hope that viewers will see my work and feel a sense of calm, while at the same time a sense of ignited passion for how this world has shaped in the past year. I want them to take this opportunity to reflect on the impact of how actions (personally or impersonally) can unfold and have either a devastating effect or

rebeccaledbetter.com Oils on canvas paper

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LAURA MYCHAL I’m interested in changing landscapes, and natural phenomena that represent the effects of climate change. Using found materials, like plastic bags and cardboard, I examine the human role in exasperating the issue. My work explores the contentious relationship between our capitalistic society and the natural world, meditating on the subsequent issues therein. Simultaneously, I seek to offer aspiration through demonstrating the ideals of resourcefulness and sustainability in my practice, as I incorporate the found materials into new harmonies.

My work oscillates between looking at environmental landscapes and emotional ones, both of which I find to be adversely affected by capitalistic ideals. The materials I choose, such as single-use plastic bags and cardboard, represent the monetary values our society upholds over those pertaining to our environmental and societal health and well-being. I incorporate them into my paintings as a way of giving them new meaning and purpose. This allows me to create a sense of hope for myself, our society, and the world in light of the issues, imagining a more holistic way to approach our complex world. @lauramychal lauramychal.com Firestorm. Single-use plastic and acrylic on canvas. 12 x 12” . 2019 Background Painting: Little Fire. Single-use plastic bag and oil paint on canvas. 11 x 9". 2021

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FASHIONREVOLUTION.ORG CULTURAL INTELLECTUAL PROPERT Y

CULTURAL SUSTAINABILITY (noun) Acknowledging the sustainability that is culturally embedded within traditional craftsmanship by supporting knowledge transfer to future generations.

SOPHIE SPARKMAN AGE 15 A STATEMENT ON CAPITALISM AND CONSUMERISM. THESE ARE THE HANDS OF PEOPLE DESTROYING OUR FORESTS.

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FROM COAST TO COAST HOW WILDFIRE SMOKE FROM THE WEST SPREAD EAST WRITTEN BY ISABELLE TAVARES

While the orange sunset that glimmered over Syracuse last evening may have been pretty, what

On the West Coast, plumes of smoke were swept into the upper atmosphere and sucked into the jet stream, which are powerful winds that jetted the wildfire smoke clear across the country. Syracuse University Assistant Professor in the department of Geography and the Environment, Ethan Coffel, said while the

caused it, is not.

Wildfires along the West Coast have burned since Sept. 5—ravaging over 1 million acres of land in Oregon, killing at least 17 people and displacing 40,000 Oregonions, and creating the worst air quality in the world, the New York Times reported. Wildfire smoke traveled 3,000 miles and landed in New York—causing weather conditions that turned the evening sky into a pastel pink haze.

smoke has reached the East Coast, it won’t impact local air quality.

“Here it’s unlikely we would have significant air quality impacts from the smoke because it’s extremely dispersed by the time it gets here. And it’s also quite

high in the atmosphere,” Coffel said.

Becky Anderson, 24, graduate student of Portland State University in water resources management, said the wildfires, compounded with the pandemic, have impacted her physical and mental health.

Chief Meteorologist for CnyCentral WSTM, Wayne Mahar, agrees. After traveling 3,000 miles, particulates in the wildfire smoke are dispersed into other parts of North America—Canada included, Mahar said.

“With the pandemic I’m feeling really anxious and depressed. Going outside for a walk and a breath of fresh air helps so much, then air quality [is] off the charts, it can make you feel really dark and gloomy,” Anderson said.

“By the time it gets here all we have is a haze. But the sky is as orange as a pumpkin out in Oregon,” Mahar said. “The more the smoke travels in the upper atmosphere the more it disperses and gets thinner.”

The clean air of the Pacific Northwest initially drew Anderson away from her home state of Ohio, but recent fires have made her question if she can stay.

Extreme-fire-weather days are expected to increase by 20% by 2035, the Times reports, citing recent research.

The worrisome smoke is called near surface smoke, which was so intense and unprecedented that it broke Oregon’s air quality measurement charts. Acting like a thermometer, air quality index (AQI) measures the “I WISH EVERYBODY amount of pollutants in the air.

COULD UNDERSTAND As of September 17, Portland’s AQI is 206 compared to 38 in THE EFFECTS OF Syracuse, according to AirIQ. CLIMATE CHANGE, An AQI over 200 is considEVEN THOSE PEOPLE ered ‘very unhealthy’ by EnviWHO AREN’T FEELING IT ronmental Protection Agency AT ALL.” standards.

“I wish everybody could understand the effects of climate change, even those people who aren’t feeling it at all. People on the East Coast, when it comes to wildfires and climate change it’s really not a big deal and doesn’t affect your everyday life,” Anderson said. “I never realized how much I took fresh air for granted.”

Besides having prettier sunsets, Syracuse residents are largely unaffected by the wildfire smoke. A resident in Portland, however, can’t step in the hallway of her apartment complex without her eyes burning.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/HRR-Smoke Map ATMOSPHERIC SMOKE— Vertically integrated smoke, or smoke in the atmosphere, from wildfires originating in the West, spans across the country as shown in a screenshot from Sept. 14, 2020.

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Anderson said she has always been environmentally minded, but until she lived through a wildfire she has never given them much thought while living in Ohio.

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Distantly Recalled PHOTO BY SEBASTIAN PETERSEN

Fires may bring destruction and sorrow, but there will always be beauty regardless of state.

How does your submission relate to the themes of Issue 003: fire, sustainable fashion, energy, and burnt orange?

It is of an abandoned 1960’s vehicle exposed by the fires of northern Los Angeles.

The fire stripped the body, causing it to become covered in a skin of rust. It is sorely fed by the bleak landscape of a decimated chaparral valley.

I’m a multi-media illustrator/sculptor who works in photography for fun. I’m currently studying at CCA in San Francisco, pursuing an illustration degree. I’m a fanatic of textures and abstract shapes which I collect in the form of found objects, vintage media, and photo reference. On an off day you can either find me behind my desk cooking up a board game for fun, or beach-combing/ thrifting for supplies.

@sebastianpetersen_art

Stephany Latham WEAVER | NATURAL DYER | SCULPTOR These pieces serve to examine meaningful intersections of connection, and aim to hold space for the viewer.

In Cloth as a Memory Object, the process begins through constructing the cloth on a floor loom, then evolves with using an ancient technique of lost wax casting, and becomes a shell of what was once held; only to be transformed into something permanent — a bronze object. It is later dyed using water, heat, and a mineral patina. At first glance of the woven work, it’s hard to see these pieces as fully bronze, but the cloth has burned away. Sometimes I consider these objects as cremated or petrified moments in time.

Moments much like fragments where pieces of the cloth have been forever burned away, leaving behind translucency or negative space, and never restored by the bronze pour. Moments that remind me that these connections tied to cloth, thread considerations of which gestures we take time to commemorate: for ourselves or for others. It comes into question which stories are being carefully preserved before being passed along, and which narratives will become worn away through the passage of time, much like a well loved garment that has been noticeably mended and worn thin. In the bronze series, Cloth as a Memory Object, constitutes that even decay is a form of transformation, that there is continuity out of fragments, and that an unbreakable narrative thread can serve as a connection to purpose and meaning.

LAND / Marks is an on-going series made up of naturally dyed handwoven abstractions created to honor the way memory shifts and fades, and how grief is experienced in the body, while simultaneously acknowledging how the horizon can be a healing symbol; a place of growth and renewal. LAND / Marks explores the disparate themes of memory, and sky because both act as a filter through which we see our lives. Each woven abstraction speaks to an altered horizon that is referenced in different junctures experienced in my life — the amber glow from the sunset along Lake Michigan in which I grew up, the burnt umber experienced along the forest floor as I thru-hiked along the Appalachian Trail in GA, NC, and TN, and the gold hue doting the prairie fields throughout Northern Illinois. These pieces serve to examine meaningful intersections of connection, and aim to hold space for the viewer.

Cloth as a Memory Object series, 2019. Handwoven textile and casted into bronze, mineral patina.

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LAND / Marks series 2020 Handwoven double wide textile, woven on a floor loom, cotton thread, naturally dyed with golden rod, alkanet roots, and alum crystals; photographed in the savannas of Lake Michigan.

LAND / Marks series 2020 Handwoven double wide textile, woven on a floor loom, cotton thread, naturally dyed with golden rod, alkanet roots, and alum crystals; photographed in the savannas of Lake Michigan.

LAND / Marks handwoven textile, natural dyes 2016 Handwoven on a floor loom, cotton thread, sewn together, naturally dyed with walnut hulls, logwood, lac, and iron oxide minerals; photographed on the forest floor within the Chautauqua Gorge, NY. @stephanylthm stephanylatham.com Naturally dyed handwoven paintings, and handwoven bronze castings.

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Cloth as a Memory Object series, 2019. Handwoven textile and casted into bronze, mineral patina.

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RELEVANT A POEM WRITTEN BY KAY CIROCCO

IRINA NOVIKOVA Drawing began to interest me from an early age. The first subjects for me were fantastic birds and animals.

What do you hope readers and viewers will take away from your submission?

The main techniques that I use are watercolor, ink, gouache, and acrylic. I love experimenting and mixing different materials. I draw a lot on environmental topics. The first big series that I drew is the “Red Book” dedicated to rare and endangered species of animals and birds.

It is a reminder as something that once was. Horses of the Apocalypse, which Albrecht Durer portrayed to them, as a memory I refer. It is like a punishment and at the same time it gives life, it destroys and warms.

When I was creating my work, I thought about what could happen, that a fiery Pegasus is like a punishment, like something that rushes through the night and burns. Perhaps the fire is a punishment or a reminder of an even greater catastrophe, a warning about what has not happened yet...

I do illustrations, invent various creatures and stories for them, draw nature and portraits. I like to do the whole line drawings, forming the composition first in my head. I am inspired by baroque music and black and white films. Recently, I have been leaning more and more towards symbolism.

Do particles talk to each other When they skip off to the Bathroom together Do fingers kiss each other Goodnight before turning Over in their sleep Do atoms recognize their Existence and what material They make up Do plants see other herbage Oggle their shrubbery and wish Oh I want to look like that

@irinanov4155 @irina1187novikova Fiery Pegasus. Watercolor, paper. 60x40 cm.

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I am a working artist ( jewelry designer) who also has a full time job as an office manager and design assistant for a successful interior design studio. I hold a BFA in metalsmithing & jewelry design from WSU and have been making jewelry for over 20 years.

Protecting our planet has always been an important issue to me. I primarily shop garage sales and thrift stores to reuse material things as much as possible.

My upcycled jewelry incorporates vintage and unwanted pieces into current wearable art. I truly enjoy the challenge of giving these outdated or broken beauties a new life!

I hope folks will consider limiting the amount of new things brought into their homes and reselling or donating items they no longer like or need rather than tossing them out to end up in a land fill. You never know who’s looking to reuse or repurpose all that stuff!

I chose warm brass metals and beads that remind me of a glowing fire. The focal piece being made out of a shell reminds us the beaches and creatures, as well as the land, are being affected by the California fires.

Suzan Harbin

@suzanharbinjewelry Jewelry

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Yuda Optiffiny UPCYCLED MEDIA WOOD, TURMERIC, EGGSHELL, AND ACRYLIC

In my work, I always position myself as a conductor — conductor of electricity or the energy of a material that easily conducts electricity or energy. I hope that the work I make can deliver good energy to many people who see it.

How does your submission relate to the themes of Issue 003: fire, sustainable fashion, energy, and burnt orange?

Using the strategy of upcycling to make my artwork adds value to environmental concerns.

I got a wash of orange color from the turmeric essence that I squeezed. I think it can bring out a paradoxical nuance, namely the nuances of horror and serenity.

Jakarta, Indonesia @yudaoptiffiny

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F A C T FASHION REVOLUTION CANOPY, 2019

Over 150 million trees are logged annually for the cellulose fibers for clothing, including from endangered and primary forests.

NICOLE WEISS she/her @nicole.a.weiss I’m a freelance photographer based out of Cincinnati, Ohio. My work centers around themes regarding the cycles of life, the nature of time, and isolation.

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Ellen High I am a graphic designer and lifelong fiber crafter — two mediums that go surprisingly well together. Detail oriented tasks serve as a form of mediation for me, and the most exciting ideas of my creative practice often happen in the time where I’m working on monotonous handcraft tasks. I love quilting and hand stitching text because they combine my love of grids and type with these haptic processes that I cherish.

I want viewers to notice the quilt as well as the surrounding environment — how it can shift and move in the wind, and settle into the grass when laid down.

The environment should not simply be a background, but a gallery space for the textile piece.

environment over time, or show scars from events such as forest fires.

The poem embroidered on the quilt is from the book Beyond Time by Gwen Frostic. It’s short and simple, but relays a strong message on the hardiness of the ‘weed’, which I interpreted as a native plant. I loved the image of these plants adapting and prevailing through natural events that occur, but wonder how this poem can also be interpreted when thinking about larger environmental impacts of industrial growth and waste. Can plants prevail through these man-made adversaries?

My piece is made entirely out of material that has been naturally dyed through a series of experiments with madder root, coreopsis, black tea, and cutch.

The piece was made entirely out of scraps, which dictated the improvisational nature of the design. I choose to build from the center with this quilt, as a riff of the traditional log cabin quilt patch, as I liked the idea that the resources that I was working with were dictating the size and final composition of the quilt. This reminded me of the cross section of a tree, where changes in the rings can record shifts in the

@ellenhigh22 ellenjhigh.myportfolio.com

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FA R H A D N I K FA M Since making a new fire had been difficult in the ancient times, Zoroastrian communities developed fire houses that had ever burning fires. Undoubtedly the rise of first humans was fueled by the ability to use fire. By learning to use fire people gained a decisive advantage. Fire made it possible for people to populate land in the colder regions of the earth. Fire produced light and provided protection. Fire enabled food to be cooked and for human beings to benefit.

Fire made it possible for the science to develop. The understanding of the nature of fire marked the beginning of an exploration of the cosmic laws of the universe.

I consider my style close to primitivism although I am not a huge fan of naming or categorizing art to styles.

I think if it is clear to viewer what was intended to express there is no need for names. I want my paintings to be received for the ideas behind them not only their aesthetic characteristics. The future I imagine in my works is a borderless world with equal rights for anyone no matter one’s skin color, gender identity, or religion. I do believe in power of art in shifting changes in society and sparking minds for achieving this peaceful coexistence.

This series of paintings is mostly inspired by the Zoroastrian concept of holy fire and represent such ideas as purity, illumination of mind and struggle between light and darkness.

Baku, Azerbaijan @ffnikfam Painting (oil on canvas)

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Detroitk n its FOUNDED BY GRETA M. Detroitknits utilizes yarn from a local store (Arts & Scraps) and all of the garments I handmake with upcycled yarn. Each sweater, top, and scarf is unique, and I try my very best to match the garment to the personality of the person who will be wearing it.

This garment is made with scrap yarn from a local store (Arts & Scraps), and the photographer (Beyond Reach Detroit) is one of my friends who photographed his brother wearing it. The sweater is mostly brown, but it contains hues of golden yellow and burnt orange. The background in which pictures were taken in is in Ann Arbor, MI. A portion of the background is yellowed grass and then you have some trees further out. On the garment itself, the thick grey portions that circumvent the sweater represent the core of the earth which is strong and can’t really be changed.

The more superior surface (the upper portion of sweater where it’s that pixelated brown with gold hues) is representative of the portions of the earth which can change and may therefore be destructed. Lastly, if you zoom in on the sleeves you’ll notice that underneath the thick white stripes there’s feathery gold, orange and some green. I put that there to mimic the open flames. You move your arms around

and you give oxygen to the fire and it can keep burning, but if you keep your hands to yourself — thus no oxygen — then the fire recedes. If we continuously source from the earth without replacing, we cause destruction, however, if we keep our arms and walk through nature and enjoy nature, then Mother Nature is given the freedom to flourish.

I incorporated pixelated brown in the upper portion of the sweater to represent the stress inflicted upon Mother Nature daily. This part of the sweater is also near our heart and lungs; therefore, it also represents the destruction inflicted upon nature’s heart and lungs. The most vital portion of our bodies and subsequently of Mother Nature’s. Energy is represented in the sweater through the golden hues across the shoulders. @detroitknits

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M A R T I N M B U G U A H The piece contains fire, burnt orange, and traditional/sustainable clothing, as well as an underlying theme of mental illness, suffering, trauma and how these realities can drain ones energy leaving them in a state of pain.

I want readers to be able to see themselves in my imagery, I want them to walk away from the piece with an understanding of mental illness and trauma as it is displayed visually.

I am currently studying as a painting major and film minor at Maryland Institute College of Art. I’m originally from Kenya, Africa and have been painting since 2019. @Toskago toskago.com Oil Paint

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SOPHIE SPARKMAN

Age 15 Polaroid photos taken by Isadora Ash. This scarf is Sophie’s first woven piece. She wove this wool scarf and naturally dyed it with marigolds to get this bright yellow hue.

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Remove the Fuel, Hold the Line PAINTED BY TANYA MOMI

What do you hope readers and viewers will take away from your submission?

Tanya’s work is greatly influenced by her own life experiences. She was born in India and graduated with Bachelors in Fine Arts from Chandigarh in 1982. She got married and moved to the United States. After 9 and half years of abuse in her marriage, she divorced him and never looked back. Busy raising her 2 kids and establishing her business in Silicon Valley since 1989, she didn’t paint for 22 years. She was encouraged by close friends to start painting again. After she started her second career, she was able to find herself through her artwork. Her painful journey became her own inspiration.

I am a volunteer for CERT (Community Emergency Response Team). I am trained to help during natural disasters. I am passionate about helping communities and being a good citizen. My daughter is also helping in her CERT neighborhood. She is a CERT supervisor and teach CERT. I am trained for earthquakes and small fires. I completely understand. I have poured my heart out for this painting titled: Remove the Fuel, Hold the Line. This painting has an N-95 mask with feelings of pain and sorrow. The flames and sparks bring you close to the experience. The viewers can feel and see the impact fire does. The animals and forest suffer the fire. We've had so many fires around the world so I felt the need to bring this message in my art. Since I live in Northern California, I saw the impact and experience the smoke in my neighborhood. My best friend lost her home in glass fire last year during Covid-19.

The first series she worked on was about the pain and suffering of a single, divorced woman. The paintings series include, “When Friends Turn Their Backs”, “Wounded”, “Beaten but not Broken”, and “Stop the Pain”. Being that the suffering of women and people all around the world was her inspiration, Tanya paints to help people ease their suffering.

As someone that is very passionate about the message behind her art, Tanya has had the opportunity to connect with many people. She has spoken at the White House about women's empowerment and leadership. Tanya’s art is distinctive and controversial.

In wild-land firefighting, one of the main strategies used is building a fire-line. This is done by removing the fuel to keep the fire from spreading so as to build the fire-line. The main point of this is to contain the fire so that it does not spread. This is called “Holding the Line.” In times of crisis, when everything seems to be going off balance, the best thing we can do is to “Hold the Line”. Holding the Line represents stability and resilience. Sometimes we might not be able to move forward, but it is important that we stand our ground and “Hold the Line.” When you are worried about losing it entirely, whatever that may be, ardently “holding the line” can be incredibly powerful.

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@tanyamomi tanyamomi.com Acrylic

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Catalina Aranguren Catalina Aranguren is a latinx woman, immigrant, artist, curator, community organizer, and social justice warrior based in Jersey City, NJ for the past 20 years. Catalina’s work is a dialogue about the modern world and our place in it. Because of the diversity of cultures in which she grew up, her work explores the relationship between perception and cognition. Oftentimes in her work she captures an instant, which forces the viewer to come closer to explore for more detail, or to take a step back to understand the full picture. The idea of the “perceived” and the “actual” are rapidly shifting cultural concepts, though their ability to elicit reactions of fondness and fear remains a constant. As an artist she has the unique opportunity to exemplify, subvert, and redefine these concepts, adding her voice to a dialogue between the viewer and their history.

The lichen growing out a burnt log embodies the idea of renewal out of the used up. she/her @caranguren argia.photos

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SARAH SPARKMAN

PHOTO BY ELLEN HIGH

Burgundy outer floral fabric: From MAIWA — This is a discharge block print done in Rajasthan, India. It is dyed with madder root and then iron.

Woven part of strap is handwoven by me with hemp, cotton, and linen. The red linen is naturally dyed with cutch and the green is naturally dyed with marigolds and iron.

The color way and fade from green to burnt orange to red is meant to represent the spread of forest fires.

100% of the proceeds from this strap will be donated to the organization: One Tree Planted. she/her @ssparkles_weaves

P E E L I N G P L E A T S PHOTO BY DANIELLE SARGEANT

‘Peeling Pleats’ plays on the ongoing connection between fashion and nature. Whether as a source of inspiration or raw materials, I hope this work can remind viewers to consider this influence with respect and signals the importance of “peeling back” the veil when discussing sustainability.

The fierce and energetic contours in the bark reminded me of the undulation of a billowing fire. At golden hour, the tree trunk and its sap shone a bright, orange colour which I felt tied well into the burnt orange theme. There is also a nod to sustainable fashion through the resemblance to pleats/folds in fabric, while further highlighting the significance of trees in the natural environment. @dars.foto 35mm film photography

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WILDFIRE SUNSETS A POEM WRITTEN BY JULIA KOOI TALEN SHE/HER

You and I watch the sky marble peach ring and purple most summer nights in chees

man park, the dead buried un

der our feet.

We hold hands, your pulse

in my fingerprints the sun a burning nectarine, the clouds aerated eddies of hot rose and gold

The man near the patch of this tle

smokes a cigar Ette the hula hooper looses their rhythm a baby is crying. I want to say

I love you I want to say that the sun set matches all of the ways I want to love

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There is a hawk with a rob in

in its talons you tell me it’s good

luck, and this is un fortunately the most beautiful sun set I’ve ev er wit nessed

Jenifer Upshur PHOTOGRAPHY BY

PHOTO OF SARA MACCONNACHIE

For me, photography is my chance to share my perspective and vision of the world around me. I feel passionately about preserving beautiful moments, scenes and subjects, whether they be obscure or simple. Color schemes and interesting lighting are elements that always draw me in as a photographer. Film photography has a richness and depth to it that truly does separate itself from more current digital practices. I’d like to think of it as a solid nod to preservation.

I want the viewers to feel the energy I attempted to capture in my photos. My intention is to leave my audience feeling warm and moody. Hopefully, I can transport the viewer to a warm, burning mystical desert.

I wanted to concentrate on fire, and the energy that burnt orange conveys. Warmth, strength, destruction, rebirth, passion, sexiness. Sustainable fashion is exhibited through my friend's, Sara MacConnachie, styled outfit of completely thrifted items. @fresh___flesh 35mm film photography

Kristy Headley Kristy Headley is an alternative photographer who illustrates the battle between the stress of stagnation and inflection points of change in our daily lives, exploring nostalgia, sacredness, and impermanence.

She primarily works in historic and experimental imaging techniques which are technical, handcrafted, and process-driven.

self, he is shown with a confident, steeled face. He is departing from his spent self. He has decided to change – to move forward – and this has renewed his spirit as he shifts into action.

LITERAL Mainstream fashion carries some societal expectations that feel a little like familial expectations of performance.

YOU CAN RUN FROM A BURNING BUILDING IF YOU RECOGNIZE IT’S ON FIRE. YOU DON’T HAVE STAY WHERE YOU ARE IN THE NAME OF TRADITION.

It is good to leave a bad situation (if you can see it).

It is good to be able to recognize when the things you are doing give or take your energy.

Modern traditional fashion (last 30 years or so) is a burning building, and takes energy.

In this image a meltdown has been had; bad things are happening here. The areas showing the primary meltdown are tinged with a burnt orange tone from the chemical process used to create this image.

Move toward what renews you.

Burnt orange is the color of change.

The subject is a well-dressed gentleman in a tie and oxford shirt, who looks exhausted. He sits in a room surrounded by images of people who represent tradition and expectations. The image of his face is depicted in duplicate. In his second self, his forward-moving

she/her San Francisco, California @kristy.headley kristyheadley.com Silver Gelatin Fiber Print, Mordançage

“INFECTED (RJW IV)”

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sweater vest CREATED BY MEG HOLLISTER

Ever since I was little, I’ve been enamored with fashion magazines and the way garments look on the page. There is a particular way colors and textures look when reproduced in CYMK dots, and I can spend hours poring over pages and cutting out bits and pieces I want to collect. And yet, the older I get the more disillusioned I become with fashion and the industry that churns out these glossy magazines. Sustainability and fashion are becoming polar opposites, where the fashion industry is one of the highest polluting industries in the world.

In “sweater vest”, I am reflecting on my complicated feelings on fashion and sustainability into a language I can understand: abstract colors and patterns. I have often struggled with a feeling of powerlessness in the face of climate disasters, and yet on a tiny tiny scale working on a collage allows me to digest my thoughts in a productive manner and prepare for more drastic responses moving forward. she/they @mccall.holly hollis23.wixsite.com/megmccall Drawing & Collage on Paper

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O d d b i rd C o .

Oddbird Co. was founded by Ceren Alkac-Lee, a mother of 5, Turkish-born Australian who now resides in LA. The brand was born from Ceren’s (pronounced Jeren) deep desire to showcase and share the traditional handcrafted textiles of her Turkish heritage while creating sustainable alternatives to the most used and loved items for your home and body.

Our products are all handmade in Turkey from natural, mostly raw, unprocessed fibers or recycled fibers that are sourced in Turkey. They are handcrafted by artisans and small-batch made so that we are able to ensure our products find a loving home before we create another batch, ensuring our footprint on Mother Earth is as light as possible.

As an Australian and a Californian, Ceren knows the devastating effects of climate change and the subsequent bushfires. The 2019/2020 Australian bushfires obliterated the country and killed hundreds of thousands of living creatures. The thought is gut-wrenching, especially when you consider the incredibly unique wildlife that inhabits Australia. Our goal as a business is to create multi-functional products that will serve our customers for years to come so that we can all use more and buy less. We want to make the sustainable choice more affordable, but more so, we want our items to stand the test of time. Our Ottoman Blankets are one of our best-selling pieces because they tick all of those boxes. They are an heirloom piece that to be enjoyed by the whole family. @oddbirdcompany oddbirdco.com Product Featured: The Burnt Orange Ottoman Blanket

RILEY JAMES

Antelope Canyon is located on Navajo land just 15 minutes away from Page, Arizona—a desert town close to the border of Utah with a population of 8,000. Around 4 million tourists come to visit different rock formations in and around Page every year.

Photos posted on Instagram have resulted in more foot traffic to remote places. It’s not just Antelope Canyon that is seeing a dramatic increase in visitors, but national parks across the country. Zion, Joshua Tree, and the Grand Canyon are seeing an influx of visitors due to the social media boom. With this brings more issues from littering to traffic and even fatalities.

People coming to Page to visit wonders like Antelope Canyon have created a tourist boom in the sleepy town. Restaurants now have lines and new tour businesses have risen to accommodate tourism. This tourism benefits the Navajo people, who make money from the tours and entrance fees.

Antelope Canyon has become one of the country’s top Instagrammed places, but is it for the best? There are many outdoors people who urge social media users to avoid geo-tagging their locations in hope to keep destinations as pristine as possible. Unfortunately, with more visitors comes more trash and waste. I personally believe people should be free to geo-tag their images, so everyone on this planet has access to these healing places. If people don’t know about these places, how else will we convince oth-

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ers to protect our planet against the effects of climate change? But with more coverage should come more education and responsibility. Everyone isn’t aware of how foot traffic is affecting nature, and that’s why it is important to implement some sort of education when posting about these places. Something as simple as mentioning “leave no trace” can do wonders for those who may not know much about nature.

When I go out in nature one of my primary goals is to escape being around other people, but that is becoming harder and harder with the social media boom. When I’m in nature surrounded by others, I often remind myself that those around me are lucky to experience our earth’s magic, and I should be happy they are here enjoying it with me.

Road tripping has become much more popular, and content creation while off the grid is a hobby picked up by those hoping to share their adventures with friends, family, and followers. When I take photos or write about traveling, I’m hoping to inspire others to care about these places and see them for themselves. I never understood how drastically the numbers would increase and all the dangers that come with more visits to pristine places. Hopefully we will be able to continue educating others on the effect of tourism, so places like Antelope Canyon will still be here for many more to enjoy. @rileyjamesphoto rileyjamesphoto.com

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Rachel Brunhild I started this piece in fall and it followed me into winter, where the warm burnt orange warp next to the darkness of the black played very well with this idea of movement from fall to winter. Fall and it’s colors, while soft, always have a fiery and warm energy to me. Leading into what we all knew would be a hard winter with Covid-19 still at large, it was important for me to sit with the warmth of the orange and the cold of the black warp next to each other and try to find the comfort in the dichotomy of the colors.

I hope that readers see my piece and feel less intimidated to pick up a new craft or art form. I started weaving less than a year ago and I’m really proud of

my humble two-toned scarf! I’m even more proud of the fact that I was able to combine new and secondhand materials to make it. Not everyone has access to new materials and equally not everyone has access to good-quality secondhand materials, regardless of what someone does or does not have access to, I hope they are able to find some way to participate in creating something. It really has kept my head on straight throughout Covid-19, and my entire life. she/her @twelve.thirteen rachelbrunhild.com Woven Textile

Philip Lindsey Time is precious.

I drove to Talent, OR — the site of some of the worst fires on the West Coast in the last several decades — and wandered.

he/him Santa Cruz, CA @longstridephoto Analog Photography

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Josh Tafoya Josh Tafoya is a textile artist born and raised in Taos, NM that works within the concepts of his heritage and furthering traditional craft. Influenced by Taos’ multitude of arts, he pursued a career in the arts getting his Fashion Design degree at Parsons in New York, where he cultivated his craft in garment design and textile manipulation. Using his knowledge to translate concepts of culture into modern constructs of tribalism in identity. Creating a conversation between the body and median, through a performative interaction in his work.

Working on these processes led him to reflect on his New Mexican home and its rich textile history. Coming from a Ranching grandfather and a Weaving grandmother brought him full circle into traditional Spanish weaving — picking up the craft that had slowly faded from his family’s history.

Exploring these weaving techniques with his knowledge in garment construction, taking ideas from one another to influence new concepts.

Keeping old traditions alive, he strives to further a conversation of his New Mexican background in his work. Melding traditional and contemporary.

“High - Low Art,” 2020 (pictured left) plays with his two crafts, design and tapestry. Draped head piece woven with reclaimed materials, paired with a silk wool patchworked coat. A contrast of materials, and an interpretation of his home, New Mexico. he/him/his @joshtafoya6 joshtafoya.com

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Zoé Cavaro & Eva Ménard Eva & Zoé is a French female redhead Directors’ duo. They create an ultra-poetic & surrealistic vision of our post-modern world, painted in full contradiction between beauty and brutality. They promote uncommon female characters, while using their hypersensitivity to shine a light on the express mutations of society, the poison of violence and impossible relationships.

What do you hope readers and viewers will take away from your submission?

uting every element to each character (greenery and sun for the main character, the sky for the second, sand+rock for the third and the sea for the last one).

It shows metaphorical energies linked to every character’s element.

We hope readers will get the importance of gathering to move forward despite the brutality of the world.

This music video shows 4 redhead women who embody the same person. The clip tells something positive about behaviors related to the very big issues we actually encounter, showing how important it is to gather and stay strong facing strong disturbances.

Eva Ménard wrote this screenplay by getting inside the head of a person facing an epilepsy crisis. We have voluntarily made it more abstract to leave a field of broader interpretations. The song is called “storm” just as a storm inside the character’s head. It really evokes the idea of a strong energy breaking everything inside her for a moment. She founds the positive energy of getting out of the crisis thanks to these metaphorical women.

In a way, this music video highlights the beauty of the main natural elements: the sea, the sand, the rock, the trees, and the sky. We shot at Penestin, France, known for its burnt orange cliff. It’s a protected place.

It was important for us to set the story on a paradisiac place where we could enhance nature by attrib-

@zoecavaro music video: youtube.com/watch?v=JlErIxmH0-0

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Miasma CREATED BY MONICA MARSHALL linocut print on cartridge paper, 12 x 19 cm

This edition of ‘Miasma’ is printed with vibrant orange relief ink and discusses the impact of natural disasters with a grotesque, amusing spin on it. Flies often come up in my work; they are often seen as an omen of death and decay, and the cartoonish imagery amplifies the more absurd nature of the sense of decline. I believe humour is vital in the times of a crisis, and as they say, you can either laugh or cry!

My practice responds to the hideousness of reality and serves as a catharsis to communicate in a frank yet humorous manner without downplaying the absurdity. Instead of being downhearted by traumatic events, they inspire me and fuel my practice. Printmaking is one of my preferred methods due to the juxtaposition of the repetitive nature of my motifs as well as the process of printmaking itself. @clownchic clownchic.wordpress.com Printmaking

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VICTORIA MARKS What I love about digital art is I’m not using harmful toxins that affect the environment. The downside of digital art is the fact that it uses electricity which in turn is also harmful to climate change. I still feel that it is better than having paint toxins and plastic materials being burned or taken to landfills that eventually contaminate the ocean, rivers, lakes, and animal habitats.

My submission relates to the theme of fire, energy, burnt orange, and sustainable fashion because, for one, I wanted to use an art paradox — basically meaning that I am expressing sustainable fashion by showing fashion that is not sustainable but is harming the environment. Many companies can claim that their products are sustainable and yet if you look closer or search through what they have said, you can sometimes find that they are lying and portraying something that is not true. That their items are not actually sustainable. That is why in my picture of the dress is not even charred, not even burning. I wanted people to make sure they do their research before accepting what could be a white lie about a companies products. I want them to know that not all companies are trustworthy when they say that their product is sustainable. My piece incorporates the literal use of fire, the fact that fire is destroying environments — environments that are animal homes. I have incorporated the use of burnt orange into the woman’s hair and the colour of the trees. Energy comes into play when you see how the flames are dancing and how her hair is flowing in the wind. The energy of the woman’s spirit, how she continues to fight even while she’s running from a fire, a fire that was essentially started by mankind. So many fires are now caused because of mankind.

Wildfires are destroying the environment, and yet, people are still putting their own needs ahead of the environments and the animals. I want them to look at it and see a woman running from the fire, holding her dress, but why isn’t she holding an animal? Why isn’t she saving something more important than her dress, a dress that is also bad for the environment.

I want them to question whether it is right for this woman to be running from the fire without saving anything around her. Could she not have let her dress rip and save some animals instead? I want them to see how the dress is basically untouched while the nature is burning and dying. I want them to see that the world is putting man made objects that are harming the environment and world in front of everything else, instead of putting saving the environment first.

I want them to question their views on our world, to actually consider how our world is treating the environment and the animals.

@varielarts etsy.com/ca/shop/VarielArts Digital Art

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NUMB CREATED BY MYLES DUNIGAN

GRAPHITE-FLOCKED SCREEN PRINT; SIZE: 38"X44"; 2018

In an era where we feel increasingly displaced from the natural world, due to polarizing ecological rhetoric or the ever-encroaching role technology plays in our daily experiences, I believe there exists a need for the unreal, the unseen. This is not a call for fantasy, but rather a radical restructuring and reevaluation of the world around us. We can no longer treat images as mere facsimiles, or the physical world as infallible verity.

One needs to simply turn on the news and switch between channels to experience alternate realities. My preferred arena is one of contradictions, where time, space, and history ebb and flow to reveal something mystical at the edge of preconception. By convoluting the truth of the landscape image through my process, I strive to reveal its artifice, documenting a new world designed to interrogate our expectations of ‘natural’, and what may occur when both technology and nature leave us behind.

My work explores how imaging technologies, climatological anxieties, and our physical experience of nature collide. In an era of scientific skepticism and ‘fake news’, reality has become pervaded by uncertainty. I employ myriad printmaking, photography and digital methods to build densely layered, liminal prints that subtly investigate the verity of landscape imagery. By constructing and documenting models that embody a dialectic between observed and fabricated nature, my practice operates as an extended metaphor for broad-reaching uncertainties regarding human impact on the ecosystem and the sustainability of our world. Styrofoam rocks populate prairies. Digitally generated fog obfuscates rocky coastlines. Vistas become layered to the point of being nearly indiscernible. Sometimes apocalyptic, sometimes meditative, I meticulously distill the tropes of pictorial landscape imagery to ultimately arrive at no-place, nowhere: the culmination of our collective anxiety.

He/Him/They/Them Gainesville, Florida @mylesdunigan mylesdunigan.com

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MARIO MOLINS These deep emotions for nature have made sculptures “sprout” that have the tree and wood as protagonists. The tree for Mario Molins is something sacred, a mystical link with nature; You just have to watch the YouTube video “MARIO MOLINS/MY GRANDFATHER IS AN OLIVE TREE” to understand the depth of the roots of the trees in the heart of Mario Molins.

darkness? ... We can know it if we listen to the silent prophecy of the tree.

Mario Molins was born and grew up in direct contact with nature, in a rural environment, in a family dedicated to agriculture in the province of Huesca, Spain.

His artistic practice starts from this vital experience, since Mario Molins learns the art of pruning from his grandfather. It is the principles of this practice that he applies in his artistic work. It could be said that Mario Molins knows how to interpret what nature tells him through the trees, each sculpture that Molins creates is what it is because it was the tree that it was.

The sculptures tell us about the connection of the tree as a physical symbol, in connection with itself. But if we pay attention, they also represent the spiritual aspect of the tree as a symbol that connects with the depths of the human being through a microcosm of lights and shadows, of matter in motion that express our mystical molecular connection with the arboreal.

@mariomolinsescultor mariomolins.com Photography of sculpture

We can ask ourselves ... What about us in the darkness of the tree? and ... What about the tree in our

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Pallavi Padukone is a Textile artist and designer from Bangalore, India and based in New York. Guided by culture and craft, she draws from nature and her surrounding landscape for color, patterns and materials.

Her recent collection, Reminiscent, explores the relationship of the senses with a feeling of familiarity, playing with fragrances each bearing a strong connection with her South Indian heritage. The sense of smell is a powerful catalyst to trigger memories and feelings of calm and comfort. Reinterpreting the fragrance industry, she uses textiles as aroma therapy to condense time and distance and create an immersive experience to reconnect with nature, nostalgia, home and identity.

TITLED: VETIVER

TITLED: VETIVER

Vetiver or Khus is a perennial bunch grass native to India, which releases a layered, woody, petrichor-like scent when activated with water. Infusing its fragrance into wax and resin beads, that are colored with natural pigments and handwoven with recycled sari silk into textiles, to reminisce the scent of the first rains hitting the parched summer earth.

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Handwoven fabric wrappings made from cotton yarn coated with the scent of clove, dyed with natural pigments of beetroot, walnut, cutch, and chilli. Inspired by the Indian ritual of cloves placed in cupboards to protect silk saris from moths and drawing from the idea of scent as a natural pest repellent to preserve textiles.

@pallu.padu pallavipadukone.com

TITLED: CLOVE

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We hope you’ve enjoyed making your way through Issue 003, viewing and reading artist’s perspectives surrounding the intersection of textiles and climate change in relation to fire, burnt orange, and energy.

Please consider donating to One Tree Planted directly, or through our website.

For more information on how to reach out, get involved, or follow what we’re up to: clearlinezine.com Instagram: @clearlinezine Email: clearlinezine@gmail.com

THANK YOU TO OUR EXTENDED TEAM: Associate Editor: Elijah Sparkman Associate Editor: Isabelle Tavares Associate Graphic Designer: Ellen High

Cl earli ne zine

c ov e r s F e at u r i n g Molly Eddington Josh Tafoya

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