Artist Talk: How Artists Explore Humanity’s Complicated Relationship with Nature

Join us for an engaging artist talk and discussion with artists-in-residence Catherine Meier and Jeff Schofield whose individual work interacts and wrestles with the complicated relationship between humanity and nature.

Catherine Meier
Catherine Meier creates drawings, animations, and large-scale installations of earth, sky, and horizon – of vast, open land and space. Her projects are large in scope and develop over several years of deep listening in specific locations. A settler descendent, she grew up on the eastern edge of the Nebraska Sandhills, and for many years, Meier worked as a truck driver hauling cattle from Montana to Texas throughout the Plains. Meier holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. In recent years, Meier’s work has focused on the Sage Creek area of Badlands National Park in South Dakota, located on Lakota Homelands. In addition to countless miles driven through the Plains, she has spent time on the Mongolian steppe. catherinemeier.com

Jeff Schofield
Both a sculptor and an architect by training, Jeff Schofield’s art practice explores the acts and remnants of human intrusions upon the earth. He creates environmental artworks in three different veins: event-based pieces, site-specific installations and found-object artworks. His event-based artworks involve natural materials recovered from forest fires, flooded rivers, and decayed buildings. His site-specific artworks feature large-scale outdoor installations involving forest settings, farm lands, and building facades. His colorful found-object artworks celebrate gaudy plastic and metal debris recovered from beaches, parks, and urban cityscapes. Jeff received a BA from Washington University, Missouri; an M Arch from Columbia University, New York; and an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art, Michigan. jeffschofield.net