Edie Dillon
Artist Bio
I am a sculptor, painter, writer, and mother whose work seeks to honor the beauty and mystery of the world.
My life has been shaped by remarkable experiences in beloved wild places as an environmental educator and advocate. I was privileged to serve as the first full-time woman ranger in North Cascades National Park, develop recycling education for the City of Bellingham, Washington, and join art and nature in community outreach for the Verde River in Arizona, among other projects.
Over time, communicating through the language of visual art became as important to me as communicating through the scientific language of environmental education. In order to answer personal questions about art’s role in cultural change, I focused my master’s research on the transformative power of art, with particular attention to environmental art.
My studio practice is a search for a personal visual language that can speak to human and environmental predicaments potently, authentically, aesthetically, and with the needed urgency. I hope to help people see and understand the beauty we live in, and to create a vision of healing that is still in our power.
Essays published in Nature Love Medicine: Essays on Wildness and Wellness (Torrey House Press. 2017) Real Ground (Natural History Institute, 2020), Ecopsychology (Mary Ann Liebert Publishers, 2020), and Women’s Eco-Art Dialog (WEAD, Taking Action, 2021) among others.
Wind Flower, Mixed media: vintage pieced fabric, aluminum roasting pan, found wood, bearing, found glass. 15” x 15” x 6”
Photosynthesis Boogie: Blessing of the Fields Mixed Media: Manzanita branch, canvas, found metal, found wood, found glass, found china. 30″ x 24″x 37″
Offering, Mixed media: Found metal bowl, found fiberglass wings, found aluminum, wood chair spindles, seeds from rainforest. 17″ x 24″ x 8″
If I had a Hammer / Turn, Turn, Turn, Mixed Media: Found and welded steel, bearings. 17″ x 12″ x 12″
Song of the Lark, Mixed media: found box, vintage slide, altered aluminum pan, found metal, welded mild steel, glass beads, light. 18” x 18” x 36”
Creation Story, Mixed media: vintage silver server, found metal, beads, altered wooden figurine, glass globe, stones, bones, seeds, shells, vintage tongs. 10″ x 15″ x 12″
Muzzle, Mixed media: Found and welded steel, dog muzzle, fabric, wood, glass. 41″ x 30″ x 13″
Grief is Love, Mixed media: Ponderosa pine bark, metal, mirrors. 36″ x 20″ x 8″
My Favorite Dress (I Never Wore It Again), Formed and welded steel based on a 1971 Simplicity pattern. 61″ x 36″ x 19″
Traveler, Mixed media: found objects, crushed can, antique lace, Manzanita branch, papier mache, concrete, acrylic on canvas. 11” x 24” x 26”
A Woman is Dreaming, Mixed media: Found metal, glass float, drawer pulls, marbles, found wood, rubber, vintage lace, glass beads. 20″ x 10″ x 14″
Bound Mixed media: Vintage hay fork, antlers, found rubber, found wood. 75″ x 24″ x 24″
Conversation, detail, Mixed media: Found and welded steel, copper, wood, glass, beads, shell. 17″ x 24″ x 17″
ConversationConversation, detail, Mixed media: Found and welded steel, copper, wood, glass, beads, shell. 17″ x 24″ x 17″
A Different Monument – The Inevitability of Freedom (view 1), Found iron, cast iron, welded steel. 29” x 29” x 19”
A Different Monument – The Inevitability of Freedom, (view 2) Found iron, cast iron, welded steel. 29” x 29” x 19”
Float (Ghost Boat, Aegean Sea 2016), side view Mixed media: Old, hand carved cedar net floats, found metal, glass and mirror mosaic, toy boat, ivory chopsticks, ceramic hands. 17″ x 24″ x 24″
Free Child. Mixed media: Propeller, horn, reconfigured childhood doll, acrylic on found aluminum, antique table feet, re-purposed granite countertop. 34.5″ x 13″ x 13″
Float (Ghost Boat, Aegean Sea 2016), details, Mixed media: Old, hand carved cedar net floats, found metal, glass and mirror mosaic, toy boat, ivory chopsticks, ceramic hands. 17″ x 24″ x 24″
Artist Statement
I engage our human and environmental predicament at the meeting place between serendipity and intention; where the beauty of the sacred found is enriched by fabrication. My art responds to crises in order to be a force for healing – on both individual and community levels.
What we pay attention to, and how that affects what we choose to keep or throw away, be they materials, ideas, people, or specifics of the natural environment, can change the stories we tell and the potentials we allow. Old things, everyday things – long used, or used and discarded – possess a resonance of memory and time; they are rich with meaning, nostalgia, and reference. I make use of these references, enhancing, enlarging, and redefining their meanings through combining the unexpected.
This process allows me to see how we might deflect a disheartening and destructive trajectory and generate different possibilities for our story.