We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nicole Dupree a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Nicole, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a project that has meant a lot to you?

A few years ago, I found myself completely consumed by a fascination with the natural color derived from avocado pits. It all started with a salad and grew into a collection of Avocado Love projects. My beloved makes a beautiful kale and avocado salad with parmesan, slivered almonds, and a lemon and garlic olive oil dressing. As part of this salad making ritual, he washes the pits of the avocados with care and leaves them for me next to the sink to dry. Held inside these small things destined for the compost is a potent, gorgeous, dusty pink dye that I’ve grown to adore, so the gift of avocado pits says to me, “I love you. I love what you create in the world—go make some more!”

In the fall of 2022, it was like love day came months in advance and the whole city was conspiring to support my avocado love experiments when hundreds of thousands of free avocados were distributed in Philadelphia in an event coined Avogeddon. Friends across the city saved their pits for me and delivered them in paper bags and pickle jars. I was giddy with an abundance of dye materials to tinker with and from these seeds grew a whole episode of my tv show, Indigo in Green, exploring the colors of the avocado pit and themes of love. I made pink pit dye for paper, ink, pigment, paint, yarn, and fabric.

The dyed fabric became the material for Phílotexō, a TEXTile project with messages of all the things beloved to us, handmade by us. On strips of avocado dyed fabric we wrote hundreds of responses to a simple question, “What do you love?” The messages on fabric were then woven into the piece on a loom by many hands. I received responses via voicemail and text message—and at art events including Art-ish, an annual party at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. People told me that they loved the most touching and wonderful things:

I love the reflection of light off of water, which dances, especially on the bottom of the leaves of trees

I love abandoned houses and imagining the stories they’ve seen.

I love the idea of inward inside a tree or inside your being or inside your bed, all cuddled up and warm.

I love empty spreadsheets waiting to become something useful.

I love heather gray t-shirts, always have, always will. They go with everything.

I love how lucky I feel every single day that I get to live a dream life of art and friends.

I love community.

I love my life.

For many people participating this was the first time that they had ever used a loom. For some it was profound to see these proclamations written out, spoken into the universe, and it brought them to tears while weaving their little bit into the piece. I loved asking people what they love, and this inquiry has become a part of my own creative wellness practice. In every new journal I write a list of things I love now in my life and it grounds me in the present, in gratitude, and in awe.

The Avocado Love project began with an avocado pit left over from a salad and became so much more meaningful and transformative than I could have imagined. The process enriched my creative practice, engaged community in collective art-making, and created a healing reflective ritual.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I have meandered on a twisty professional and academic path to where I am now. I studied biology, anthropology, and art history; then, interactive media design and education with a concentration in educational technology in grad programs. I lived in Asia teaching English as a language at universities in Seoul and Tokyo for a handful of years. When I came back home, I continued to teach English to international professionals and international students studying visual art, dance, and jazz. Before this current iteration of my life design, I held administrative roles at institutions of higher education in Philly. However, the most formative learning experiences relevant to what I do now came from the summers I spent at Buck’s Rock Summer Camp. I explored the woods, was a part of the most amazing creative community, and spent my days freely choosing to create art in the many studios including glassblowing, ceramics, weaving, batik, dance, sculpture, printmaking, photography—and even the clown shop!

I have always been curious about how things are made and fascinated by watching the process of matter transform into something of new use, meaning, and purpose. I love being in the presence of transformation in others and this fascination has been the common thread throughout my journey to where I am now as an artist, educator, and small business owner.

Current projects and ventures coming out of my studio include:

* Indigo in Green: A TV program that explores nature-based art through field trips and experiments with local artists. Indigo in Green airs commercial-free on Philadelphia’s public access media channel, Philly CAM.

* The Studio Apothecary: An online shop offering seasonal collections of handcrafted art materials, each aligned with episodes of Indigo in Green. Every collection includes items created on the show, gifts connected to the theme, and supplies for projects of that season.

* Ampersand Textile & Design: Known for yarn hand dyed with plants, botanical dye-based drawing ink, and fiber art from natural, repurposed, and thoughtfully sourced materials. Each piece tells the story of its origins—from the plants and people involved to the neighborhoods of Philly. I also lead in-person workshops and facilitate learning experiences that engage communities in nature-based art activities.

In my endeavors, whether through my show, products, or workshops, I aim to foster a connection to nature, broaden creative expression, and enhance wellness among artists and creatives. I want everyday to feel like waking up at summer camp and everyone to have access to experiencing a little bit of that. By sharing what I create and discover, I hope to inspire others to consider the materials of their practice and explore the magical, transformative, and healing experiences of forging connection with the natural world by making the materials for their creative practices.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I’ve been practicing unlearning modes of working that do not prioritize time for my most important connections–with myself, with nature, with my family, and my community. In some of my previous professional roles held responsibilities and tasks in a single job that were more realistically fit for 2-3 seperate positions. I was most harsh on myself for feeling I couldn’t do all of the things, all of the time. I would complete hundreds of tasks and at the end of each day I could only see what I hadn’t accomplished, who I hadn’t helped, and I was completely drained. I had nothing left for myself, my family, my creative practice—I was burned out, exhausted, and miserable.

As my own boss, I spend a lot of time thinking about expectations of productivity and the kind of life I’m designing. I’m practicing being an excellentist and unlearning perfectionist tendencies that trap me in striving for the impossible and fill me with anxiety about whether the work—whether I—will ever be good enough. I’m not on the other side of this where I’ve released all fear of judgement, or accept all the ways things are wrong or flawed, but I am finding ways to be more tender, gentle, and compassionate when creating. When I’m aware and accepting, it feels like there’s more room for the creative process to slow down, for improvisation and flow, for feeling like I’m in my body and being in the present.

Is there a mission driving your creative journey?

I think my purpose as a creative, as a human being, is to be here for transformation. I’m deeply concerned about the immense environmental toll of our consumption and a culture of careless disposal, so a driving force behind my artistic journey is to find ways to elongate the life of everyday objects and materials.

I wear my visibly mended and patched favorite pair of jeans with pride. With thousands of tiny stitches, and more patches every year, I’ve kept them going strong for well over a decade. I’ve also experimented with turning kitchen waste like coffee grinds and onion skins into vibrant dyes and inks, before sending the plant materials to my compost pile to feed the soil in my garden. These are just a couple of ways I seek to pull objects and materials into a more circular, regenerative cycle rather than sending them to a landfill.

At the heart of my work is an unending curiosity – I’m always asking myself, “Where did this come from? How was it made? What’s the true impact of obtaining, using, and discarding this item?” This drive to understand the origins and effects of the things we consume fuels my passion for transforming things considered waste or broken into works of beauty and awe that add rich stories to our lives.

My creative journey is guided by a deep reverence for nature and a commitment to sustainability. I see my role as an artist and entrepreneur not just to make pleasing objects, but to model alternative mindsets and practices that can help heal our relationships with the land, ourselves, and our communities.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.indigoingreen.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ampersandtextile/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ndupree/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@indigoingreen