We were lucky to catch up with Ivy Guild recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Ivy thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

The Keeling (2021), my MFA thesis exhibition, is one of the most meaningful project I have ever completed. The work represented the end to a rigorous graduate degree, which was made longer by the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in the middle of my three-year program. This exhibition represents the largest installation I have ever undertaken and was included in an article by Hyperallergic.

The following is an excerpt from my written thesis “The Encyclopedia of Sublimation” (2021) about the exhibition and some of its backstory:

“The Keeling (2021) is an amalgamation of aloe corpses, fictional prosthetics, speculative organisms, and contemporary fossils, among other things. After months of relocating rare plant specimens from the UCI Arboretum to help them escape demolition, why did I find myself renting U-Haul vans to haul dead plant limbs to my studio? To me, these artifacts are loaded with meaning and potential. You say organic waste, I say found objects. These dismembered figures amassed in my studio as I began to contemplate how I might reanimate them. I became a sponge for the relics of a thriving ecosystem that now awaits a cement machine. The works in the show are individuals, some of which are amoebic on their own, others of which operate collectively as an amoebic whole. This exhibition offers a speculative look at a different interspecies conversation in which destructive practices have created new interdependence between the organic and inorganic worlds.”

The full written accompaniment to The Keeling (2021) can be found here: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0k64k76j

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Ivy Guild, a San Diego-based artist, graduated in August 2021 with an MFA in Studio Art from the University of California, Irvine. Guild was born and raised in Phoenix, AZ and moved to San Diego in 2012 to pursue a degree in Marine Biology. Guild quickly realized that she was making art whenever she wasn’t doing her lab homework for biology class. Four years later, she graduated with dual degrees in Visual Arts, Art History, and a minor in Communication Studies. Guild’s work considers the sinister side of evolutionary survival and environmental justice, speculating on a world after the Sixth Great Extinction and diving into speculative realms of investigation. Her work manifests in multimedia, living installations that combine organic and inorganic materials to engage all of the viewer’s senses. Guild’s MFA thesis exhibition, The Keeling (2021), was shown at the Contemporary Arts Center Gallery at UCI in August 2021 and made alongside Guild’s written thesis “The Encyclopedia of Sublimation” (2021). Pedagogy is key to Guild’s practice and she is a Studio Art Faculty member at La Jolla Country Day School. She teaches during the school year and volunteers as the Fibers Studio technician at Artists’ Cooperative Residency & Exhibitions (ACRE) in the summer.

Guild has worked at the Art Department of CTSA at UCI, the Laguna Art Museum, Artists’ Cooperative Residency & Exhibitions (ACRE), the Department of Art, Architecture + Art History at USD, the New Children’s Museum, and Lux Art Institute. Guild is a 2022 Lighthouse Works Residency fellow. In 2018, she participated in residencies at Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT and ACRE in Steuben, WI. Guild has shown with ACRE, 1805 Gallery, CSU Long Beach, Wow Project LA, Great Park Gallery of Irvine, the Museum of Fine Arts at Florida State University, Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, the William D. Cannon Art Gallery, San Diego Art Institute, and Sebastopol Center for the Arts among others. When she isn’t teaching or making art, Guild spends most of her time climbing, cycling, cooking, gardening, and spoiling her cats, Calypso and Penelope.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

In my opinion, society can support the arts at all levels of participation big and small. When we look at the smaller scale of what people can do on an individual level, they can start by experiencing art in their local communities. This means visiting small, artist-run galleries, local museums, community art walks, performances, and standing up for art in education. Art is pivotal in the development of individual voice and identity, as well as creative thinking and problem-solving. As a society, if we value art education and artists in our communities, we can rewrite narratives that disparage the importance of the arts. On a larger scale, cities, states, and our country as a whole need to provide more support to art institutions, non-profits, and individuals. Artists need space, time, and resources to make their work, and much of the funding present in the world comes from private donors. Lastly, people should offer themselves a chance to make art. Many people get caught up in thinking they are “bad at art” and that attitude usually stems from an experience they have had in their life. If we support people in exploring different creative outlets, our art community will continue to grow and thrive.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Making art is what I love and it has enriched my life in more ways that I could have initially imagined. Art creates a space for me to process the world around me and the experiences (good, bad, and ugly) that I have had in my life. Being an artist has taken me across the country to residencies and exhibitions where I could meet and collaborate with wonderful, brilliant people. Becoming an artist led to me finding my career in art education, which has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. These reasons all lead me to believe that the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is the connections it creates between people.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ivyguildart.com
• Instagram: @the_wild_guild
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivyguild/
• Other: https://vimeo.com/ivyguild

Image Credits
Ivy Guild