nancy winship milliken

One of the first questions I get from viewers about my work is “Can I touch?”  It is a delightful question to hear because it lets me know that the material is calling to the viewer in an internal way. The second question I inevitably hear is, “what is it made of?” It is this question that I would like to address, because it carries so much weight in the development of my photography, sculptures and installations.

My choice of natural materials is purely selfish.  I can’t resist the beauty and smell of raw wool.  There is something so grounding in its pervasive presence in my studio. The silkiness of warmed beeswax is about as luxurious as it gets and is my favorite material to work with in the winter.  The use of intestines or sausage casings came about by looking for a non-toxic translucent material. I clean my house with vinegar to avoid toxic Dow chemicals and in contrast, I was wearing a filter mask in my studio using materials that were questionable. Fiberglass, plastics and resin also had absolutely no conceptual relationship with what I was saying with my work.

My relationship with intestines (or cat gut) deepened when I realized that using a material that comes from the gut, a gut reaction, being inside someone else, turning yourself inside out, hiding nothing, all became part of the mix.  There is a raw authenticity with a material that is so responsive and has a mix of characteristics that changes in any environment.  It is the stuff of life. And unfortunately natural materials are something we have lost a relationship with in our virtual loaded world.

It is such a stark contrast for me when I leave my slick, non-textured, unscented computer and go to my studio into a world that is rich, alive, and even mucky. As a past outdoor educator it is so shocking to me how fast we, as a society are losing touch with all that is basic and textural.

As viewers we lose track of where that cadmium red (that looks so beautiful on a canvas) came from and at what cost to the environment.  I am not proclaiming I am a purist when it comes to materials.  I use plenty of materials that would raise an environmental eyebrow. Even though I don’t have the answers, I am conscious and aware. A friend of mine once said, the start to solving a problem is realizing that there is a problem.  My choice of using mostly recyclable, biodegradable, natural, non-toxic materials is just a start.

I make a lot of mistakes in my art, and these mistakes inevitably lead me to some other discovery. Typically this would lead to a lot of waste as I move forward. But with the versatility of casings and skins, wool and wax I can reform and reshape even biodegrade the material.  My goal is to have a zero waste studio.