Grove is currently exploring art as method and medium for encouraging social change and healing. Creative approaches are essential for the paradigm changes needed to shift to a sustainable economy and get back to a viable, nourishing relationship with nature. Relationship with nature includes honoring the human body and cultivating a profound sense of belonging. Environmental degradation requires a re-examination of aesthetics that can help us to embrace current realities without looking away; only then can we begin living in the solutions.
Recent juried appearances of Grove's work include the 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 Appearances Green Arts Festival in Provincetown, MA. In 2013 and 2014, she convened panel discussions on art as earth activism at the Patty DeLuca Gallery in Provincetown. In 2014, she gathered a panel on "The Spirit of Resilience: Art, Earth, Food, and Politics" at the Connecting for Change conference in New Bedford, MA.
Grove is a certified permaculture designer.
Appearances: Green Arts Festival 2017
THE HORSESHOE CRAB INVASION: study of color, paradox, persistence, and transformation
I explore themes of community and color, difference and sameness, "otherness" and mystery. The crabs evoke what it takes to carry on through eons, while the shells address the need to grow and leave behind our former selves. This species is 540 million years old, surviving multiple periods of climate change and mass extinction. These crabs have taught us about optics from study of their 10 eyes, and their blood is harvested to test human vaccines and IV solutions for purity.
This installation uses the shells shed by horseshoe crabs, recycled house paint (acrylic and latex) and pine needles. No crabs were harmed in this project.
Let's get invaded by ancient wisdom. Color matters a lot and not at all. Blessed be.
Appearances: Green Arts Festival 2016
Laundry becomes art and healing exploration. This work upcycles materials, using leftover acrylic and/or latex house paints on used sheets (cotton/poly blends).
Domestic laundry meets guerilla street art for shamanic healing. These are part of a series on personal healing and operate on many levels: as process, as inquiry, as intention, as prayer, as affirmation, and of course as images. The natural setting is an integral part of this work, and to some degree can be replicated in installation. The pieces inform each other and illustrate an ongoing journey and active participation in exploring healing on many levels. I hope to encourage viewers to engage their own healing journeys.
This second entry joins the other two hanging outside on clothesline, forming one installation. Entitled “Defying Gravity,” it is an affirmation of healing, in my personal case from scoliosis. The primary cure for twisting of the spine is lifting against gravity and creating space to ease curvatures. Defying gravity is a cultural trope, and relates to the human desire to fly. Flight is a primal experience of freedom. The resists in this piece were horseshoe crabs, ancient creatures leaving paradoxical white shadows.
This third entry joins the other two in one installation--airing “dirty laundry” on the clothesline highlights what is intensely personal in the work, as well as what is human. Everyone is held up by bones. The skeleton forms an anti-gravitational structure that allows us to stand, move and dance. Hanging the original skeleton prototype over the Defying Gravity painting became a concrete prayer that blew in the wind in the woods. This image is a more specific meditation on curvature and emotions in the healing process.
From the Appearances 2016 website:
“Appearances” is an “Eco Arts Festival” with a goal to BRING AWARENESS to the majesty and fragility of OUR ENVIRONMENT, to PLAY WITH the naturally occurring energies – such as WIND, WATER, SUN where art is transformed by the elements during the duration of the event. Appearances 2016, the 6th international eco arts festival will be held again this year. Thanks to the Trustees of the Reservation, we have use of the 17 acre Dunes Edge Eco-Campgrounds with 100 camping sites for the Festival. Artists are invited to create, perform, or place artwork under the pine covered grounds and camp!
During APPEARANCES the campground will be transformed into an outdoor art space with installations, sculptures, performances and other great events. INDOOR ECOCENTRIC WORKS of any and all artistic forms can be exhibited or performed at sites throughout Provincetown. Major national, regional and international artists, scientist, and naturalists participate in APPEARANCES. Invited scientists, artists and authors will participate in readings, workshops, and talks.