We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Darcie Book. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Darcie below.

Darcie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

“Borderless: Together Outside” is a community engagement series I recently began, that deals with interconnectedness and the intersection of art and environmentalism. As both an artist and an arts facilitator, this project allows me to bring my environmentalist background into the foreground.

The series kicked off with a panel discussion led by Paloma Mayorga with a site-specific public artwork that I created for the event. Mayorga led a conversation about human relationships to nature and landscape with panelists Jamal Hussain, Kill Joy, and Mueni Loko Rudd, at Dimension Gallery Sculpture Park.

The “Borderless: Together Outside” series addresses topics at the intersection of art and environmentalism, led by Austin’s LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, and refugee communities. Some of our most vulnerable populations feel unsafe and unwelcome in our shared outdoor spaces, and are therefore less likely to experience the joy and major health benefits of time spent in nature. My goal is to make change in this area through the ongoing community series, and other collaborative efforts.

The project’s background is aligned with my artistic practice, as it considers our complex human relationship with the land. The idea is that we look into a landscape and the land looks right back at us. The land is aware. It is alive, and it sees us.

This project was supported in part by the City of Austin Economic Development Department and made possible by our generous hosts at Dimension Gallery Sculpture Park.

I have plans for “Borderless: Together Outside” to be a much larger and ongoing series, including the following components:
• Nature walks
• Outdoor art classes
• Environmental education
• Panel discussions, with artists and environmentalists in conversation

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am an Austin-based artist, educator, and arts facilitator. My work explores paint as object and architecture, and addresses our complex human relationship with the land. I create experiences that spark joy and connection through meaningful audience engagement.

I believe there’s meaning in material and process. My artistic practice revolves around constant experimentation and discovery, and the joy this creative energy brings to my life and the world at large.

A series I’ve been working on for the past year or so is called “The Land Stares Back”. This work deals with our complicated human relationship to the land. We look into a landscape and the land looks right back at us. The land is aware. It is alive, and it sees us. Of course, humans are part of the land, but we’ve also drawn an illusory distinction between ourselves and “nature”. Also related to land, the watercolors I use incorporate pigments from genuine precious stones, so the artwork is imbued with the healing properties of amethyst, hematite, turquoise, and piemontite.

“Second Sight” is a related series, using eye shapes as the primary imagery. Second Sight references expanded modes of vision, and also offers protection. We can see into the future and sense what is not right in front of us. This work also explores how we relate to the darkness. Darkness elicits a fear of the unknown, but it can also be warm and comforting.

My large-scale installations strike a dialogue between hyperphysical paint forms and expanses of metal leaf in which I am painting with light and fields of reflected color. The spectral color fields emanating from the metal leaf shift as the viewer/participant moves around the space. There is a deliberate intersection between the ethereal medium of light and the materially tethered nature of paint.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

The underlying motivator through my work as an artist, educator, and organizer is the idea of interconnectedness.

My practice revolves around constant experimentation and discovery, and the joy this creative energy brings to my life and the world at large. My work elicits curiosity, activates the joy of occupying our physical bodies in the present moment, and sparks conversation, becoming a way for strangers to connect.

These are some of the key ingredients for a much-needed expansion of empathy in our world: love and appreciation for our own bodies, true physical presence in the moment, and connectedness with nature & other people. My abstract compositions create a space of discovery and empathy-building without explicitly telling the viewer what to think or feel. I leave room for varied interpretations, sparking inspiration for a diverse audience to create their own narratives.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

There are two primary modes of support I see as most beneficial. First, individuals just showing up and being present to engage with creative activations is crucial. I personally feel that my work is not complete without an audience/participants to experience whatever I have created. The work is a conversation, and that conversation can’t be completed without others’ involvement.

Second, financial support is key. Creatives improve most aspects of our lives, but I find that our efforts are often undervalued and viewed as unnecessary or frivolous, at least here in the United States. Artists have always been at the forefront of positive social change. Whether or not an artist’s work may be categorized as “social practice”, artists keep things moving and evolving. We generate new ideas and expand people’s minds. At the federal, state, and local levels we should increase funding for artists’ work, expanding existing programs. Of course, collecting artwork and making smaller donations to artists/organizers are also vital.

On a related note, please reach out if you are able to contribute to future iterations of the “Borderless: Outside Series”. I plan to keep all our future events free and publicly accessible, and to continue compensating participating artists for their time and efforts. My Venmo account is also linked in my Instagram bio if you’d prefer to make a direct donation. Every little bit helps and is sincerely appreciated!

Contact Info:

• Website: darciebook.com
• Instagram: @darcie.book