Seeds InService
2014-2018

Ecofeminist paper activism by Melissa Potter and Maggie Puckett combining feminist and ecological concerns.

The Mobile Mill + Maggie Puckett
2014

Over four days in July I worked with The Mobile Mill's Jillian Bruschera as an artist-in-resident during th Chicago Parks District event Sandtastic. Youth campers from across Chicago participated in beach-side papermaking workshops using recycled and local fibers.

The Big Here
2014

The Big Here: Chicago is a dynamic participatory installation of 35 questions set on handmade paper designed to test and increase ecological awareness. With each question articulated on paper made out of organic fibers that amplify the question’s content, visitors are encouraged to write and draw answers directly on the installation, which will ultimately be bound into an artist’s book.

A Slow Apocalypse
2014

Unlike the ultimate, sudden end, A Slow Apocalypse is a process, a journey. The itinerary includes extreme weather events, droughts, floods, sea level rise, wildfires, epidemics, and pollution. Based on prompts culled from a veritable glossary of ecological disruption and disaster, draw your version of a slow apocalypse on a variety of handmade paper.

WALL MAP

Psyche-Anthropocene Projection
2013

Psyche-Anthropocene Projection is a world map emotionally predicting the terrifying future of our planet’s biomes as they experience climate change. 

RADICAL CRAFT

Seeds InService
2014

Seeds InService: A Papermaking Institute is an initiative of Melissa Potter and Maggie Puckett to explore the intersections of the art of hand papermaking with gardening, social practice, community engagement, and creative pedagogy in The Papermaker’s Garden.

INSTALLATION / ARTIST'S BOOK

The Big Here: Chicago
2014

The Big Here: Chicago is a dynamic participatory installation of 35 questions set on handmade paper designed to test and increase ecological awareness. With each question articulated on paper made out of organic fibers that amplify the question’s content, visitors are encouraged to write and draw answers directly on the installation, which will ultimately be bound into an artist’s book. 

BODY OF WORK

Indigenous Unite!
2013
handmade paper

Indigenous Unite! is a collection of portraits and landscapes related to environmental destruction in the Amazon rainforest and those who protest it.

WALL MAP

The Scream of the Arctic
2013
handmade paper (fibers: abaca, flax, cotton, wheat straw, linen, cattail seeds and reeds, desert agave; inclusions: soil, desert sand, beach sand, leaves, red and green marine algae, lobster shell, campfire charcoal; pigments), pva
70 x 93 x 1 inches (installed; composed of 9 panels each 22 x 30 inches)

ARTIST'S BOOK

Homeland
2013
30 different specimens of handmade paper (fibers: abaca, flax, cotton, wheat straw, linen, cattail seeds and reeds, desert agave; inclusions: soil, red and green marine algae, lobster shell, desert sand, beach sand, campfire charcoal; pigments), waxed linen thread, pva; ink-jet printed title page, diagram, and colophon 2013 7.5 x 50 x 2 inches (flat)

ARTIST'S BOOK

Thaw
2010 - Ongoing
handmade paper (cotton, flax, plant greens, pigment), thread, twigs, Plexi box
book: 6 x 4 x 2 inches (closed)
box: 8 x 8 x 8 inches

COMMUNITY PROJECT

Phyto-Paper

Phyto-Paper contains organic Lemon Queen sunflower seeds. This plant is known to absorb lead from soil, reducing the soil’s toxicity in a process called phytoremediation. Please plant these seeds in your neighborhood to reduce lead contamination in the soil.

WALL MAP

Future Under Climate Tyranny (F.U.C.T)
(A 4° C warmer world)
2011
handmade paper (abaca, cotton, flax, wheat straw, beach and desert sand, soil, marine plastic, dried anchovies, dried shrimp, feather boa seaweed, dried garden plants, vegetable seeds, pigment), pva, acrylic
68 x 123 x 1.5 inches (installed)

ARTIST'S BOOK

Fire to Fire: From the Big Bang to the Red Planet: A Timeline of the Earth’s Past, Present, and Future in Paper
2011
handmade paper (abaca, cotton, flax, linen, campfire charcoal, red and green marine algae, lobster shell, dried anchovies, roots, ants, shed snakeskin, feathers, pressed flowers, fur and leather, egg shells, vegetable seeds, ground cloves, litter, coarse desert sand, beach sand, pigment), commercial paper, thread, pva, ink
36.5 x 7.5 x 2 inches (flat)

ARTIST'S BOOK

Salty: LICK THIS BOOK
2011
handmade papers (cotton, abaca, sea salt, table salt, pigment), thread, squid tentacles, pva
6 x 5 x 2 inches (closed)

ARTIST'S BOOK

Soil Horizons
2011
handmade paper (abaca, cotton, flax, berries, plant greens, dead leaves, roots, soil, desert sand, pigment), thread, pva, hemp cords
6 x 5 x 4 inches (closed)

ARTISTS' BOOK

Total Ocean Recall
2010
handmade paper with ink and colored pencil drawings by community members, drum leaf binding
96 pages