Episode 55: Ruth Burke
John Twork 0:00
Ruth, Welcome to Redbird Buzz. I'm John Twork from University Marketing and Communications. Our guest today is Ruth Burke, an assistant professor of video in the Wonsook Kim School of Art at Illinois State University. Burke holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in studio art and art and technology from Ohio State University, and a Master of Fine Arts in interdisciplinary studio art from the University of Michigan. Burke joined Illinois State's faculty in 2020 and last May, she was awarded a nearly $50,000, 2 year grant from the North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program to build four pollinator friendly earthworks in McLean County with heavy lifting, or in this case, pulling, contributed by her team of five year old oxen named Clark and Sparky. You can read more about Burke and Clark and Sparky in this spring's issue of Redbird Scholar magazine.
And it's my pleasure to welcome Ruth Burke to Redbird Buzz. What's the word red bird? Tell me, Ruth, about yourself and how you developed a love for animals and art.
Ruth Burke 1:23
Thanks so much, John. I appreciate you inviting me on the podcast, and I'm really glad to be here today. My name is Ruth. I'm a professor, I'm an artist, I'm an animal, and I have, I think, I've always loved animals, and one of the first questions that I regularly get when I tell people about my work, or when they see my work, or when they see me out with Clark and Sparky is, did you grow up on a farm? Did you come from a farming family? I didn't. I grew up in the suburbs, and I had the opportunity as a kid to go to horse camp, and that was like an overnight camp. You start at two started at two weeks when I was 10 years old, and by the time I was 17, it was like I was gone away at camp for about 10 weeks out of the summer. Wow. And that camp was really where I developed this, like, more tangible love for animals, where I had the chance to be really close to them. But like many young people, I was a horse girl, and I one of my favorite memories is growing up. I had a friend who she would sleep over at my house, and then one day she was like, I don't want to sleep over at your house anymore. And I was like, Why? Why not? And she goes, you have so many horse pictures plastered on your walls, but it's giving me nightmares. So like wild horse girl has always been part of my persona, and the the art making is sort of an interesting journey. I went to high school where they had an excellent art program, and you could sort of focus on art at this all girls Catholic school, and they still have a great reputation for their art program. And spending time in that program, I think I was absorbing the societal messages of like, don't be an artist. An artist is not a sustainable career. Like you should be going to get an education, to get a career. And while I was in that program, it was very much like I'm going to go study econ, because that's what my dad did. I'm going to be a lawyer, because that or not a judge, but my mom's also a lawyer. And so I went and I started my freshman year of college at Boston College as an econ major, and I took one calculus class, and I was like, Oh, this is not going to work out well. And looking back now, and I don't know if it's partially like neuro divergence or just noticing these patterns earlier on in my life, is I would I sort of looked at things differently when I had a math problem in front of me, I would I would not get the answer right, but the teacher's like, I see what your logic here was, but it wasn't correct. So I was always looking at things a little bit differently. And at the end of my freshman year at Boston College, I made the decision to transfer to Ohio State, and I was like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna follow my heart and do this art thing that was always sort of in the background. And that's really where I had the opportunity to work with some amazing mentors, Amy Youngs and Ken Ronaldo, Shane Mecklenburger At Ohio State, and those were the folks that introduced me to bio art and eco art. So they really like planted the seed for what I'm doing now, which is really, really beautiful. So, yeah, and, and I, you know, I think, like, a million kids like, you want to be an artist, and you like animals, Yeah,
John Twork 4:58
but you're saying that, You were, say, in high school, and thinking about what career your path, you're going to go on making art with a team of oxen wasn't necessarily what you know had in mind.
Ruth Burke 5:12
No, I don't think I knew what oxen were at the time. No, I mean that, yeah, the horses were present and the art was present. They were they were very separate parts of my life.
John Twork 5:23
Yeah, tell me a little bit more about that passion you had for horses at a young age. What was it about them that struck you so much?
Ruth Burke 5:30
I think before I had like, up until age 10, it was very much the like mystique of the animal and the fact that they're big and powerful and represent a lot of things that they represent, a lot of things that horses are like burdened with, right like metaphors and symbolism and allegories that we put on These animals. But when, when I started going to horse camp, the group of people who were mostly women, that were young women, they were girls who were taking care of these animals, that was the first time I saw like women doing manual labor outside of the home. And I was really attracted to that I wanted the responsibility I was really interested in, that caregiving responsibility that comes with keeping something else alive and healthy and happy.
John Twork 6:29
Yeah, yeah, something massive. So you get your BFA in Art and Technology at Ohio State, you didn't go straight into your MFA program. So what did you do? You know your you became an art, professional artist, right out outside of earning your your BFA. So what all did that entail? Yeah,
Ruth Burke 6:53
the that was one of the best decisions that I made was taking time between undergrad and graduate school, the jobs that I worked, I worked as a nanny, I worked on horse farms, scooping manure and cleaning stalls. I worked at Whole Foods, as a chalk artist. I worked at McGraw Hill education, which is textbook publisher. So lots of different jobs, but what was happening in the background was much more important, and that's what that's where you kind of figure out, like I learned how to be part of an art community. I learned about my working habits. I learned about what does my studio practice look like without deadlines imposed by classes and other people. And you just have this, like, freedom at that moment too, to just figure out, like, where is my where's my passion? What do I like to do? What am I good at? Yeah, and that time was just super, super important to be able to kind of figure some of that stuff out. Yeah, and I had, when I got out of undergrad, I had applied for graduate school right away, and in that time, I after some reflection and talking with mentors, I realized that I was applying right away because I was scared of going out into the world without those deadlines, without the structure of an academic space. And I'll never forget I was I'd worked briefly for artist Anne Hamilton in Columbus, and she asked me, like, why do you want to go to grad school? And I was like, because it's what you do to become a professor. She was like, that's not a good thing. I just want you to think about that and the it was out I was going out of fear, right? The again, the structure that does support you. So that time between undergrad and grad school was just really formative to help me figure out what what my life looks like without academia and now here I am,
John Twork 9:00
very briefly, can you tell me what a chalk artist at Whole Foods does? That sounds awesome? Yeah,
Ruth Burke 9:05
yeah. It was a fun job. It was stressful, but it was a fun job. So if you've ever been into a Whole Foods or Trader Joe's, we don't have either of those. Sadly, haven't been in either one of those stores in about five years, but they have these great chalk displays on end caps, and that's where it's, like, the organic bananas are on sale for 85 cents this week. And there's a person in the back who is making all of those signs, wow. And that was you. That was me, yep, yep. So it was fun to work with the with the marketing team, and, like, it was just, and I'm, it's ironic, because I'm actually not a particularly good illustrator, or I can't draw, but I somehow made it work at one point in my life, I was pretty darn good at hand lettering.
John Twork 9:50
That's an incredible step on your journey. So you do go on to get your MFA. Can you tell me about your experience at the University of Michigan?
Ruth Burke 9:58
Absolutely. I was encouraged to look at the program by some mentors at Ohio State. They thought it would be a good fit. They knew it was a good program. And I was particularly interested in working with Holly Hughes. They're a performance artist, and they have, for a very, very long time in their work, in their writing, been thinking with animals. Holly works with dogs. Specifically, Holly's also a dog trainer, which is interesting, and so it seemed like it would be a good fit. And the University of Michigan offers a fully funded MFA that was really important to me as an artist, I knew that if I took on debt for a graduate program that that was gonna impede my ability to make choices after. that's one of the things I also love about ISU, is that we have a fully funded graduate program. So any young artists listening, if you're looking at grad programs, look at places that are fully funded, including us, but the the University of Michigan has incredible resources facilities, and it's, it's very near and dear to my heart. I'm extremely, extremely grateful for the education that I got there. My professors pushed me in a really productive way, and that's what I needed. And, yeah, very, very grateful for the opportunity to study there.
John Twork 11:23
And was that where you first learned and started working on this concept known as earthworks?
Ruth Burke 11:29
That was where I was doing a deeper investigation into interspecies kinship. Okay, so I was apprenticing on a microdairy about 20 minutes away from University of Michigan for the entire time I was in grad school, and then quite a few years after. So having that hands on experience of learning how to take care of other animals, not necessarily horses, was was really helpful, and that was my primary research site.
John Twork 11:58
Okay, okay. So, so then, when did this concept of earthworks come come into your purview?
Ruth Burke 12:07
So the first earthwork that I ever made was in 2015 in Iceland. Oh, wow. Not related to animals at all, yeah. But it was an ephemeral performance that now, looking back on it, I'm like, maybe I like, overstepped my place as a visitor there, but that was the first Earth work that I had made, and I have been making them consistently as part of my practice since 2020 so smaller scale projects. Those include a couple projects in Towanda. There was a performance with my horse Wren in Cleveland, Ohio, and then the earthworks that are part of the domestic rewilding series, which are across the United States.
John Twork 12:59
Now tell our listeners, what is an earthwork? Yeah,
Ruth Burke 13:02
so an earthwork is a form of art making that is made by shaping the land. Sometimes it is also bringing natural materials into the gallery. And earthworks are they come out of the conceptual art movement of the 1960s and 1970s it's also called land art or earth art,
John Twork 13:24
okay, why does this seem like a natural fit for you, this type of art?
Ruth Burke 13:33
So in investigating and thinking and making work about interspecies kinship and kinship is, is connections or some type of bond with others, right? And those might be family, those might be your social circles. But for me, Kin, or who qualifies as kin is, goes beyond just humans, so it's also the more than human world. And outside of the fact that it just makes me feel really good to be working outside. I like working in my studio, but I love working outside. The earthworks are very much art form that you ideally want to be present in, physically present in and there are things that are more powerful than what I can wield as an artist, and maybe that's water pooling somewhere and you see a reflection or seeing flowers blooming. And so there's just some magic about collaborating with the earth Yeah.
John Twork 14:45
Where do you find your inspiration for your earthworks? Is it the location or the project? Where do you find that?
Ruth Burke 14:52
Yeah, so it depends. Some projects are what we call site specific. They are made for a specific place and responding to that specific place's history, or in my case, sometimes it's the terrain, but some works are site sensitive too. So one of the projects, the one I mentioned in that, was in Cleveland, Ohio, with my horse. We were walking in a circle, and we walked in a circle for about two hours. And the earth work was the matted grass, and we were walking on some dried golden rod as well. So it was the matted grass, and that eventually disappeared after a while. So something like that piece that could go other places, but the project out at the hort center that can't go anywhere else with its with all of its specifications. So So some things are transferable. Some things are responding to site. And a lot of the inspiration comes from my experience in animal husbandry. Some a lot of it comes from taking care of land from these other experiences as you know as an aspiring farmer working on a micro dairy, shoveling manure right out of stall so it comes out of the care labor involved in taking care of animals For the most part. Yeah,
John Twork 16:19
we'll talk more about your major project that you're embarking on here in just a minute. But first I want to talk about how you ended up. You were at the University of Michigan, and then you came to Illinois State. How did you end up here in normal Illinois, at Illinois State University,
Ruth Burke 16:38
the universe aligned. Yeah. One of my very, very good friends was studying at UIUC, getting her MFA there, and she saw the job post. I was on the market. She saw the job posting, sent it to me, and she was like, I know a little bit about ISU. I think you'd be a really good fit here. And I started to research the school. I started to research the history of Central Illinois, and I had already had some of these animal powered earthworks in mind, and it was like, whoa. This is the perfect place to to carry this out and and the projects that I'm working on now, the big projects, those are what I proposed in my job talk. So it's the universe continues to signal like, Yes, you are in the right place, yeah. And when I came and visited, I just had really, I had a great time. My visit was lovely. And when I was talking to colleagues and mentors, and they were like, the campus visit is rough, it's really hard. And I came back to Michigan after being here for a couple days, and I thought to myself, that wasn't hard. Like everything felt right. It felt really easy. And I think that in big part is because the colleagues, my colleagues here, are so wonderful. Everybody met, everybody I met, I vibed with. You know? It's just it everything felt right, yeah? And I think, yeah, that's, that's my colleagues, co workers, all the faculty, staff, and the students that I met too. It's just everybody was great.
John Twork 18:13
And so you bought a farm. Tell me about that. Yeah,
Ruth Burke 18:17
land here is very expensive. So the bank owns the next 28 years. But the the land that we're stewarding, my husband and I, is we own eight acres. We lease another eight adjacent acres. It's a really interesting location. It's one of the established properties that you can see on some of the earliest plat maps of McLean County, the original settlers who purchased the land, I think they owned about 1000 acres. They're buried up at the church right up the road. And so it has this history. I mean, we have people regularly stop by and say, Oh, I worked on this farm when I was a kid. My aunt lived here, so it's not unusual to see somebody driving up our driveway. This is somebody else that knew Marge, that was the lady's name that owned it for a significant amount of time, but it's and it's just been, it's been labor of love, I'll say that, yeah, yeah. And it's a lot of hard work, but it's really, really rewarding, and it's just this incredible responsibility, right? And it's very humbling. And
John Twork 19:30
so you moved into the farm. You didn't have Clark and Sparky yet, though, right? So tell me about who you brought with you to the farm, and who's arrived since you moved in? Yeah. So
Ruth Burke 19:42
we did. We did have Clark and spark. Oh, you did. Oh yes, we, when we first moved to Illinois, we had a small rental farm, okay, up in Towanda, had the best neighbors ever, if you're listening, think you're great. But that small farm in Towanda that were leasing that was where Clark and Sparky initially arrived in October of 2021, so when we moved to our new place, Clark and Sparky came, our dogs came, and everybody else who's there now is an addition. So my horse is living at home. He's got a buddy that's friend of mines. And then we have 17 laying chickens and three very affectionate Barn Cats,
John Twork 20:33
and you can see all of them in action on your Tiktok, which is just incredible. I think if you search Clark and Sparky on Tiktok, they'll show up. My personal favorite is there's, there's one where I believe it's, I don't know if it's Clark or Sparky, but one of them is grooming one of your affectionate Barn Cats. And it's just, if you're having a rough day and you need to smile, watch that video, and you can't help but smile.
Ruth Burke 21:00
Yeah, yeah. It's really interesting, though, the way that everybody gets along, yeah? Really lovely. You know, you'll be sitting on the front porch in the summer when I can, you know, spend my time, my mornings, having a slow morning, drinking coffee, and you'll see the dog, the chickens, the cats, the cat, the cattle, the horses, and then there'll be like a hawk in the background. So wait, you know, looking, can I pick off one of these chickens, which hasn't happened yet, knock on wood, but it's, yeah, it's really interesting. Everybody gets along, and I think that's one of the wonders about domesticated animals is they're incredibly adaptable, yeah, so that's why you can see, that's why you see cattle on every continent and not snow leopards, sure, right, sure. So the they have, they, they've learned to kind of live alongside us. They've learned to live alongside a ton of other species. And, yeah, there's just like farm shenanigans 24/7
John Twork 22:05
so Clark and Sparky arrived in 2021 you said, Tell me about how you ended up with these two oxen, why you ended up with them, and what that experience has been like, raising them to the age and size that they are now. Yeah,
Ruth Burke 22:22
so I had, I purchased Clark and Sparky with the intention of them being my coworkers on these projects. I probably could not have convinced my husband to buy them if I was like, they're just pets. So they are working animals. They serve. They have very, very important job on our farm. And without them, things would be much more difficult and different, yeah, but I, when I had started to look out into the world, I want a team of oxen. I recognized that this was my first time taking on a team of my own, yeah, and I did not want to get teeny tiny babies, because I was still figuring out how to be a teamster, how to be an oxtroer. And I was like, I probably have some bad habits and ingrained in my my drover practice as a newbie, and I don't want to pass it on to a pair of calves, yeah, so you can start training them when they're a week old. Wow. So knowing, knowing that I was looking for a slightly older team, and there are some great if anybody's interested in like oxen niche information, there's some great groups on Facebook all things oxen. And I had seen Clark and Sparky were for sale, so I Clark and Sparky were purchased from a commercial dairy in Maine and then brought to Vermont to recover from scours, which is like a super upset stomach. And then they were given to a family in Virginia. And the Virginia family, their kids were working with them. It was during COVID, during lockdown, and the kids had sort of grown out of their interest. But the woman facilitating the sale, Erica Marzak, was the at the time, the president of the draft animal power network. So knowing her and she, you know, she had a good reputation, I was like, I think I'm comfortable purchasing these animals, sight unseen, from a person that I'd also never met, and in the oxen network is so supportive. The draft animal network in general is so supportive, so her, you know, reaching out and saying, if you have any questions, you can always, you know, drop me a line. I'm happy to, like, mentor you from afar. And they little guys got on a trailer and came all the way from Virginia, I think it was a nine hour ride, and then hopped off the trailer, and they were the size of Great Danes. Now they're way bigger, but it's and it's actually really great, because we do travel a lot, and they are such good travelers because they took all of these long trailer rides as small, small babies, and yeah, so it's been, it's been a, you know, a learning experience, but just so wonderful. I mean, I don't have human children, but I'm like, Oh, my is this? Like, what mothers feel like when they like, look and it's like, you were so little and now you're so but, yeah, it's been, I mean, it's just been wonderful. They're they're so smart. They're incredible co workers. They're really silly, extremely gentle, curious. I think cattle are just as smart as dogs, if not smarter, and and they we have a really beautiful bond and relationship based in trust. They trust me and I trust them.
John Twork 26:22
Yeah. Were they named Clark and Sparky already?
Ruth Burke 26:25
Okay? Yes, okay, yeah, okay, yeah. So we got, we have, like, the National Lampoon theme going on, yeah, in my oxen practice. So Clark and Sparky, the truck and trailer are red and green. And then I was able to get a university research grant a couple years ago while I was doing the back end work for this big project to have a custom cart made. Because one can imagine, it's sort of hard to find, like a pre fabricated oxen cart these days, I would imagine, so the carts name is, She's a beaut.
John Twork 27:00
Wonderful. That's that's so perfect. And so not only have Clark and Sparky required training to get to where they are now, but you had to be trained right as to how to drive a team of oxen. What did that entail? Yeah,
Ruth Burke 27:16
so I started really dreaming up this project in 2018 and the and that at that point, that's when I was like, Okay, I feel comfortable, like, I think I could take care of some cattle. But then there was this whole like work relationship that I didn't know a lot about, and I was, at that point I was still weighing. Do I want to go draft horses, or do I want oxen and the horse girl in me said, get a team of horses. So I went to 2020, to 2021. I was at tillers International in Scotts, Michigan. Tillers offers classes related to homesteading, draft animal power, small scale crop growing. They do blacksmithing, all kinds of cool skills, practical skills. And then they also do a lot of international work too. And I took every single animal, draft Animal class that they offered, so draft horses, farming, logging, oxen, basics, and it sort of ended up being an economic decision. Horses just cost a lot more to maintain, and I knew that because I had had horses, and I was like, Guys are expensive, but the horses tend to be a little bit more flighty than cattle. So I could hypothetically probably, like, shoot a shotgun next to Clark and Sparky, and they're just gonna turn their heads and look where the horses they're gonna run away, sure, so that that prey response in equines is stronger than in cattle. So ended up going, you know, making a decision to go with cattle, and I'm really glad I did. They, I don't tell my horse this. Think I like the cattle more, wow. But the it's fun to learn something new as well, right? So having this work relationship with cattle is it's it's different, yeah. And then one of the aspects that I really appreciate about it is, when you're driving a team of horses, you are holding lines that are connected to a bit, a piece of metal in their mouth. And when you're when you're driving cattle, you are walking next to them, so you're sharing the same. And like, eyesight, line your feet, your next you're just next to each other. You're closer. And the tools, you know, I use, like a, we call it a lash, and that's sort of a suggestion. I'm not I'm not hitting them with it, unless they're, like, gonna hurt themselves or run into something and hurt themselves, but the lash is a sort of suggestion. You're sort of drawing a bubble around how you want them to move. You're using your body, you're using your voice, but the fact that you're right there with them, it's just different. And I found that really intriguing.
John Twork 30:39
Yeah, tell me about their personalities. Clark and Sparky, they're very different, aren't they?
Ruth Burke 30:44
They are super different, yes. So Sparky is really sharp. He's super, super smart. He is much more athletic. Sparky likes to be pet behind his forehead and on his shoulder anywhere else is like, I don't know, maybe don't do that. And Sparky will eat treats out of my hand. Clark will not eat treats out of my hand. Clark is about 300 pounds heavier than Sparky, so he's my fat boy, and I love him, and Clark is not as sharp, so he takes a little bit longer to sort of pick up. Like, oh, this is, this is what you're asking me. And Clark is much more affectionate, so he like, he loves when I hold his head in my hand, my arms, hands, arms, and give him kisses. Yeah. So he, he's very, very affectionate. And Clark is, Sparky is very competent. Clark is not as confident, so he looks to me more for reassurance, yeah.
John Twork 31:53
And they always are aligned on the same side when you're driving them correct. Can you talk about that and, and, and, did you pick which side based on their personality? Or have they of has their personality evolved because of which side they're on?
Ruth Burke 32:09
Yeah. So, so a lot of teams, so one of the, one of the like adages about Teamsters, if you ask 10 teamsters for 10 solutions, you're going to get 10 different solutions the same problem. So, but a lot of people will say, if you're having issues with your one of your one of your team, you can switch their sides. I've never had to do that. And so the animal, so you the drover, the person they walk on the left side of the shoulder, and the ox that is close to them is called the ny n, i, G, H, the far one is called the off, O, f, f, so Sparky is my off Clark is my nigh. And that that's actually worked out really well, because even though Sparky is much more athletic, and he has a bigger step. He moves faster than Clark. Clark is the one who needs a little bit more guidance, so having him close to me is really helpful. I've only switched them once, and it was like complete confusion. And I was like, okay, things are going good. The what we're gonna leave things away there, yeah, but it's It was also nice when they were little smaller, that if they got ahead of me, and they weren't running away, they were just running, to quote my, one of my mentors, Rob Collins. But when they were running, Sparky would because he moved so much faster than Clark, they would end up turning around and just facing you, yeah. So if Clark was on the off side, they would end up facing away, oh, no, and probably running some more,
John Twork 33:51
yeah, yeah. So it's an important thing to figure out who belongs on which side, yeah, and
Ruth Burke 33:57
it's every team is different, yeah, right. That's one of the things I really love about working with animals, is you have to get to know them. Yeah, they have personalities, they have anxieties, they have fears, they have desires. And I think to be a good steward and to also be a good coworker to them, you have to be very sensitive to those things.
John Twork 34:18
Yeah, I want to talk more about your project that Clark and Sparky are going to be helping you with. So you have this $50,000 grant, and then you raise some additional money too through a hatch fund, I believe. So you're establishing two pollinator plots and two pollinator friendly earthworks in McLean County, so four locations total. Just tell me about this is a massive project, but give me just an overview of what this all entails.
Ruth Burke 34:49
So yeah, so the SARE grant is funding a interdisciplinary, social engaged, socially engaged art and agriculture project and the objective. Perspectives of the project are broadly to establish pollinator habitat, pollinator food source by making these earthworks, which all include native plants and are using draft animal power, it's also to create and support community. So any kind of farming community. We tend to be, like, a little bit isolated, just by the geographical nature of like, having a farm. You don't have a neighbor. Typically, that's somebody you can like, wave, wave, hi to as you walk your dog down the road and the so the project is, we're, I'm working with four farmers, Sally Lasser, Becky Howell, Ron Navis, Jeff hake, Nick froeman, and then rob Collins as a he's a remote advisor. And we're essentially trying to create and establish some infrastructure, or build on some existing infrastructure to make community. And we are also looking at the viability of draft animal power in creating pollinator plots. So one of the things that I think a lot about is the ways that heavy equipment, machinery, tractors use fossil fuels. And if we are out there establishing pollinator habitat, which in many ways, is being decimated and or severely impacted by our use of fossil fuels, doesn't it make more sense to go with a renewable power source. So Clark and Sparky are the primary labor on on that project and establishing these different sites. And there's gonna there's gonna be the earthwork at the hort center. There's gonna be a smaller scale earthwork at Sally Lasser's farm in Gibson city. There is going to be a traditional pollinator strip in Heyworth at Ron Navis's place, and then series of smaller pollinator strips at Becky Howells place, in downs.
John Twork 37:09
And this work is getting you've already designed all of all of these plots. Is that? Is that right? And now the work is gonna get started this spring and summer. Yeah,
Ruth Burke 37:21
yeah. So, I mean, so the ones that really need to be designed are the earthworks. Sure, the pollinator strips are much easier to install, yeah. So it's a straight strip that might be like six feet wide, sure, and then you put down pollinator seed, yeah. But the earth works are much more esthetically crafted and complicated in terms of the different features within them. So at the hort center, there's going to be a huge culture mound, which is a German permaculture planting method, and that consists of big logs, smaller sticks, branches, leaves, topsoil, compost, topsoil. And so that's a whole feature that we're going to have to build. I think we're going to it's going to start at about six foot, and as the organic material on the inside decays. That's going to release nitrogen, it's going to retain moisture, it'll probably settle to about three feet, so that those type of elements are much more time consuming. And I think that's I enjoy those, because that's kind of where I get to, like, flex my artist muscles. Yeah.
John Twork 38:43
And so the public will have a chance to engage in all of these projects, right? What are some ways that folks who are listening might be able to engage in your creation of the of these works, and then maybe afterward the enjoyment of them? Yeah?
Ruth Burke 38:57
So on Saturday May 3, the hort Center is hosting a field day event. So we're going to have some teams of draft animals out cultivating that acre of land, and we're going to be moving some logs, so actually starting to put down the framework for the mounds that day, which I'm very excited about. We're also going to have some speakers. We're going to have a bunch of local farms present. That is also the first day of the farmers market, Bloomington farmers market, downtown. So like, go hit the farmers market, get your sourdough, sourdough bool, and then come on over to the field day. Yeah, yeah. So that event, that's going to be a big event, Saturday May 3. And then on Friday, June 20, just the summer solstice, Dr Epplet is going to be debuting a second performance. The first one was in 2023, and these performances that he's been doing at the site at the hort center, I. Are uplifting Native Voices, and he's brilliant. So definitely come out for that. That'll be later in the day. So we're all going to watch the sunset go down together at the site, and there will be something else to look at, which I'm really excited about. And then we have yet to schedule some community planting days, but there's going to be some community planting days on the calendar. Check out the hort Centers website for those dates, and then you'll, I'm sure you'll hear them on wglt, and wherever else we we push them out to and then in the fall, we're going to have a second field day at Sally lasser's Farm, our wildflower farm and fields in Gibson city.
John Twork 40:45
Okay, so lots of ways for folks to experience this. Yeah, once these earthworks are developed, and I guess they're, they're never completely finished, right? They're always evolving. But, but what is it that you hope that folks take away from their experiences immersed in the earth work. Yeah,
Ruth Burke 41:05
so my goal is that people feel connected to something bigger than themselves. Yeah, bigger than your kinship family, familial connections, bigger than your kinship connections in your social circle. And the one of the things about kinship that I've been thinking a lot about for the last decade, and scholar Enrique Salomon talks about this, is that kinship comes with like a moral obligation, right? So when we extend our kinship circles to beings that are outside of again, those traditional family, friends, co workers, whatever neighbors and we, we extend that to a more than human community that comes with that moral obligation. So it is my hope that people have this beautiful esthetic experience, but that they also walk away with a a feeling that I am also responsible for making sure that we take good care of our Earth, making sure that our pollinators have food sources. They have habitats to live in and and ultimately see that, like all of these kinship webs and all of these connections, like everything is tied to one another, our success as human beings is reliant on pollinators, right? No pollinators. We're screwed so so that we really do have to take care of of the of the earth. Yeah, yeah.
John Twork 42:48
And when I interviewed you for the scholar story, you said, this is your life's work. Can you elaborate on that? Yeah,
Ruth Burke 42:54
yeah. When I say my life's work, it's I say that because I look back on all of these hints over the last 20 years where it's like, okay, now you see the connection right between your interest in this and your interest in that, and your desire to do this, and you enjoy being outside, and it feels like this big Venn Diagram of like the Things I like to do and the things I'm good at, and the things that the world needs, and the things that places like Sarah are interested in funding, and so like these, these earthworks, are at the center of that Venn diagram. And, yeah, I'm just so grateful to have the opportunity to do that, to do that here at ISU, to have the support of my colleagues, to have the support of and collaboration of Dr Epplet, Jessica chambers and Joe Tulley shout out to the Hort center. They're the bomb. And and you know, and I would be remiss to not acknowledge the incredible gift that I got from the Wonsook Kim School of Art. I received an endowed professorship. That professorship was able to provide me with more time to make these projects actually happen. So I think, like, without the SARE funding, without the professorship, none of this would be happening in the spring. So it's, it's really and that's why I say, like, this is my life's work so far. It's because I thought it was going to take a lot longer. And again, like the universe has just come together. It also feels like a lot of hard work and rejection like art. I mean, I got rejected for three things last week, and it's artists get rejected a lot, as in, a lot of academics do. So it. It. It's just really wonderful to see like all of these things coalesce happen at the same time.
John Twork 45:06
Well, congratulations, and can't wait to see it all come to fruition. And for our listeners, if you have a chance to participate in any of those community engagement activities and meet Ruth and meet Clark and Sparky, it's definitely an opportunity worth taking. So Ruth, thank you so much for your time and best of luck as these projects commence.
Ruth Burke 45:29
Thanks. Yeah, for anybody listening. If you drive past the hort center on any day this summer and you see us out there, please pull on in and say hello. So thank you so much. Thank you.
John Twork 45:48
That was Ruth Burke, an assistant professor of video in the Wonsook Kim School of Art. You could read more about Burke in this spring's issue of Redbird Scholar magazine. Thanks for joining us, and be sure to tune in next time for more stories from beyond the quad you
Transcribed by https://otter.ai