Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nicolle LaMere. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Nicolle thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I recently completed a residency at Tablelands Center for Bioregional Art in Lubbock, TX. I’ve completed multiple residencies in the past however, this was the first instance where the organization personally reached out and invited me to attend. It may be hard to define, but I believe it is a career milestone for someone to remember your artwork and offer opportunities and resources to advance your artistic practice.

Since 2016 I’ve continued the practice of creating soil spheres. It arose from a desire to re-conceive personal identity as an accumulation of our ancestors’ experiences and the cyclical flow of matter and consciousness. By plunging my garden spade into the earth, I travel through time, and through artistic manipulation I re-orient the linear conception of causal accumulation to compress that time into an indivisible point.

I was attracted to Tablelands Center for Bioregional Art due to the untethered accumulation. The generational tilling of the soil and the seasonal dust storms offered an additional challenge to the current way I relate to site/non-site. My practice of creating soil spheres was an extremely private act. Knowing that I would be collecting from land, tended to by a community of people encouraged a new line of exploration.

I’ve become increasingly interested in how land is both depicted and described. Throughout my research, I utilize Ecofeminism as a conceptual framework to reweave the dualities of gender and land relations in pursuit of equality and climate justice. In her 1949 publication The Second Sex, theorist Simone de Beauvoir exposes the social structures that acknowledge men as complete subjects, but objectify women through their denial of equal subjecthood. Similarly, land is objectified through the hierarchical prioritization of substances via the attributed value for human use, while employing a fabricated ideal of “nature” to satisfy the romanticized gaze.

As a result, this will be the first instance in my practice where there will be a returning of the refined soil spheres to their point of origin by volunteer participants. These microcosms of time will therefore be experienced rather than persevere as a viewable artwork.

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

My greatest asset is my insatiable curiosity. Constant exploration, research, and always brings me back to my community, my students, and my contributions to the arts culture of Houston Texas.

I spent the first twenty-five years of my life in southern Wisconsin on the fringe of suburbia and farmland. Having received a BFA from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (2011), I relocated to Lubbock, Texas to complete my MFA from Texas Tech University (2017). After graduation, I participated in the Land Art of the American West field study program traveling over 6,000 miles and camping through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada. I have completed multiple technical ceramic research grants, the most recent being the NCECA Graduate Student Fellowship (2015), and was a 2022 Fulbright Distinguished Scholar semi-finalist for an Independent Research Grant to Glasgow, Scotland. I completed an eleven-month artist residency at The Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, a four-month residency at The Printing Museum, and recently completed a three-month residency at Tablelands Center for Bioregional Art.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

As an artist, there is never a singular clear path to success. Therefore, my greatest challenge is seeing the opportunity in each new day.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

In late 2020, I was accepted as a Guest Artist at the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park in Shigaraki, Japan. As my very first opportunity to participate in an international residency, the entirety of my focus shifted towards preparing for my departure. However, due to the ongoing COVID restrictions, the organization actively monitored infection rates and mandates from the Japanese government. Every three months I would receive an update as to whether or not I’d be able to start my residency. I put all other projects on hold to avoid making commitments that would then be broken. After a year of passing up opportunities, I decided to pivot. In 2022 I accepted a full-time position as the Education Coordinator at Art League Houston and committed to residency and exhibiting opportunities. I still await my departure to Japan, but at least I’m truly living each day to its fullest.

Contact Info:

• Website: nicollelamere.com
• Instagram: nicolle_lamere

Image Credits
Images courtesy of artist Nicolle LaMere