The Pigment Hunter AIR will bring the art of pigment hunting, paint making, and creating art to places beyond the Southwest. The focus of Pigment Hunter is to create an environmental awareness of our impact as humans on the Earth that sustains us in so many ways from the food we eat to the art we create. Pigment Hunter will also help to educate artists on how to reduce our collective ecological footprint in the creation of art while bringing an awareness to the potential sources of natural color that exist outside the walls of our art studios.
Pigment Hunter wants to cultivate an awareness about the health of our watersheds and the role we have as humans in respecting nature and reducing our own ecological footprints. The vision of Pigment Hunter is to map the locations of local pigment sources in the watersheds that they originate from and use the sources of color to create sustainable art. The artist in residence program and mobile pigment lab will focus on embracing the use of natural materials harvested within each watershed such as mineral pigments and plant based dyes that reveal the beautiful colors of nature. The creation of art with sustainably harvested materials will be used to bring an awareness to the environmental impacts that we have as humans and as artists to the health of the very ecosystems that sustains humanity. The use of natural resources from each watershed will also be used to celebrate the diversity of minerals and soils that provide the very foundation for life to exist and for unique species that are endemic, threatened, or endangered due to the impacts of humanity. Other facilities will include an insulated shipping container with lots of light which will function as the printmaking studio with a lithography press, etching press, and dark room for creating works of art that use handmade inks composed of mineral and plant based pigments. The shipping container also will function as an research library and office space providing a place to absorb knowledge through a collection of books and educational literature about minerals, plants, pigments, art, and ethnography. |
RED RIVER BASIN & PIGMENT HUNTER AIR |
HEMPCRETE ARTIST STUDIOSHempcrete will be used to develop a series of individual living spaces for the artists and for other guests who are visiting during the months when the buildings are not being used by the artists in residence program.
These are renderings of a potential design for a hempcrete studio that would be built on the site in Sunshine Valley. The building would be situated to capture the passive solar sunlight and in alignment with the rising and setting sun. Each live space will contain a sleeping loft, a composting toilet, an indoor shower and outdoor soaking tub, a kitchenette cooktop with a sink and fridge, an office space, and an open floor plan for the living room. A deck or patio will provide an outdoor environment with a shade structure to provide relief from sun while taking advantage of the amazing views of the surrounding vistas. The live spaces will exist separate from the work spaces in order to facilitate various uses for other residents who will not need access to the facilities for creating art. This set up will also provide privacy and refuge for those who need some space for seclusion and a quiet space for reflection and contemplation. There will also be a communal building that will provide tools and equipment for artists to use in the creation of art. An independent studio space will be provided for each artist to work in that is joined to the main art hub and shop space. |
The modified shipping container which was built out in Portland will act as the storage vessel to move all the pigments, books, tools, and equipment from Oregon to New Mexico where it will find its new home in Sunshine Valley. This will be the landing pad and place for refuge out of the elements while the rest of the buildings are constructed.
The inside of the shipping container already is framed out and insulated with mineral wool insulation creating a comfortable space to work in. There are 6 windows in the container that are each 2 feet wide by 8 feet tall along with a single door on the end wall and french doors at the main opening. The shipping container will also act as a foundation to build a second floor out of hempcrete that will function as a living space above the research library and office. A deck will also be constructed and will cantalever over the ground creating an additional protected workshop below with solar panels above to help capture energy while functioning as a shade structure. Solar panels will power the internal and external work space of the shipping container and will provide additional power to other studio spaces and workshops in the future. The south facing and north facing walls will have living walls that will help to control the temperature of the metal building by regulating the amount of sunshine during the heat of summer and cold during the winter. |