“The breath of the forest: Visualizing the unseen”

89th Forest Industry Lecture Series

Artist Lindsy Hallekson takes us on a journey to explore how creative practice can expand our ways of understanding the world around us. While science may be able to convey objective findings in words and charts, artistic representations are emotionally compelling and create different ways of understanding the state of the natural world around us. 

Halleckson’s paintings have explored collaborations with atmospheric chemists as well as the integration of publicly available remote radar sensing data. Through the process of layering thin coats of acrylic paint with brushes, her own reverence for the sky and land shows through the blurring of scientific factual info. Join us to see the forest in a new light.

No registration is required. The presentation will be offered live in CCIS 1-430 on March 2 from 3:30-4 p.m., and available online via Zoom.

About the Speaker

Lindsy Halleckson’s work crosses fields of art, science, and environmentalism, and her paintings and installations have been shown in galleries across the U.S. and in international venues. She has been awarded grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council/McKnight Foundation, and Puffin Foundation. Hallekson is currently an invited collaborator working with atmospheric chemists on projects funded by the National Science Foundation (2019-22) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (2022-24). She has received residencies in The Arctic Circle, at Hinge Arts at The Kirkbride, as a Jerome-funded Emerging Artist Fellow at Tofte Lake Center and at the New York Mills Regional Cultural Center. She was an Art(ists) on the Verge 10 Fellow, and her work is represented by Wally Workman Gallery in Austin, TX. She has her BA in Studio Art and Art History from St. Olaf College and a masters of business administration from the University of St. Thomas.

Abstract

As a visual artist, Lindsy Halleckson’s work lives at the intersection of art, philosophy, and science. She paints in the tradition of minimalism to evoke multi-sensory experiences heightened in quiet solitude by creating works that are also rich with emotion and memory. She asks questions about how our bodies relate to the global ecological systems that surround us and support existence. Although her paintings are not specific representations of place, they reference sky and weather. She finds inspiration at the edge of day, and this quiet, liminal, and changing space is full of possibility.

Most recently, her paintings have explored collaborations with atmospheric chemists as well as the integration of publicly available remote radar sensing data. Through the process of layering thin coats of acrylic paint with brushes, her own reverence for the sky and land shows through the blurring of scientific factual info.

Headlines and images of devastating impacts of climate change permeate the news, shocking us through images of record-setting wildfires, floods, and melting glaciers. These visuals are effective at conveying the dire situation of ecological systems and are sometimes paired with scientific data that supports urgency. For the general public, the impact of information regarding our destruction of the world is perhaps better at breeding powerlessness and overwhelm. While science may be able to convey objective findings in words and charts, artistic representations are emotionally compelling and are even able to invoke past experiences – thus creating different ways of relating with and understanding the state of the natural world around us.

Beyond scientific data lies opportunity for connection to the wonder and curiosity of investigating the earth. Creative practice offers to expand the ways of understanding the world around us, extending our emotional and intellectual connections with that which we cannot see. There is so much more in this world than one modality of knowing. While respecting science, we must also hold a curiosity of what may lie outside its narrowly drawn borders, as art can illuminate so beautifully. Scientific, artistic, somatic, philosophical, or whichever personal combination of viewpoints one holds, Halleckson’s work offers the question of how experience is enhanced by rich explorations between fields. Even in spaces that seem vast and void we can seek to gain understanding—we find their value, and we find that they are changing along with us.