Science | Public Health | Engineering

Some of this is life that feels like work and a lot of this is work that feels like life and I’m never really sure which of it is ever even in balance anyway. Sometimes I think time was invented so we don’t explode from it all happening at once.

Karen Alice Merritt (she|her) is a downeast Maine writer, community health advocate, beekeeper and STEM instructor. Her creative works are explorations of the details – gestures, juxtapositions, unexpected framings – and considerations of how remembrance is built from how we reflect and are, in turn, reflected. Sometimes the most revelatory components of a memory or an image are in the shadows that pass behind us. | and thinkpunkgirl? This is the DIY. This is where we work it out and build it from.

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(gelatin silver print with stencil | ink 2011; digital composition | collage 2019)

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Opportunities & Projects Awarded

• 2023 – Writing Team – Community-Driven Geosciences – NSF & The 2072 Report
• 2022 – We The People – w/  Zenab Bastawala
• 2019 Rebel Blend Fund Grant – Intersection (1 in 5 | 1 in 2)
• 2017 – 2018 Armin E. Elsaesser Fellowship – The Mines
• 2017 CSA(II) – Art | Farm Collaboration (Harlow Gallery)

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Projects Summary  

Writing | Creative & Technical

• RootStock | Telling it to the Bees (2019 – ongoing) – (Collaborative [A4] project)
• Elsaesser Fellowship (2017 – 2018) – history and legacy of mining in Latin America
• TheSpiritLevel (2017) – Stories of Place

Street art | Graphic arts

• 1 in 5 | 1 in 2 (Intersection) (2019 – ongoing) – street art for community engagement around public health, identity, substance use, resource access, safety & stigma.
• all y’all (2015) – Community portraits as exploration of inclusivity (paste-up).
• cityDrift (2014) – Self-Arrest – Installation used open-ended alley to address stigma, addiction and recovery (collaborative paste-up with resource links).
• Art Truck (2013) – visual | interactive 1-night show of street portraits in a non-gallery space. Visitors invited to take images from the show throughout the evening.
• Tag[G]alle[r]y (2013) – Outreach-focused street tag project – images addressed gender identity | inclusivity with links to resources  [with Elective Arts Collaborative]
• 30 days | Half-life (2012 – 2013) – multi-media exploration of street art tags; creation and photographing of tags + video of tag weathering | removal | tagging over.
• Tag[G]alle[r]y (2012) – Outreach-focused street tag project – images addressed cancer treatment | ‘survivor’ narrative with links to resources.

Photo-documentary | Street photography

• BeSpoke (2019) – stock images for The Art of the Bicycle
• [Clark × Salem] (2018) – Image series – urban gardens
• CSA II (2017) – Art | Farm collaboration – art inspired by life, work, and the land on Maine farms (collaboration through Harlow Gallery, Hallowell, ME).
• StreetGods (2014 – 2017) – Wings, stars and light – that unexpected holy.
• Arcana (2013 – 2016) – Images explored symbolism of the Tarot Major Arcana through street interactions & reflections in Portland, Maine.
• Quiet Ones (2013 – 2014) – Window-shop views; watching the city change.
• the girl who (2012 – 2013) – Images and text series explored self-identity and versions of the ‘truth’ of fear and freedom  [with Elective Arts Collaborative]
• Havana (2012) – Images explored contemporary urban culture in Havana, Cuba.
• Portrait (2010 – 2013) – Go for a walk, share a conversation, take a picture or don’t; unlearn time, relearn wandering. Trust that leaving an office was the right thing to do.

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– Rutledge, FL

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