Carol Padberg, Professor of Practice, Art

Name:

Dr. Carol Padberg

Title:

Professor of Practice

Department:

Art: Studio, History and Education

Describe your research in about 200 words.

I am an artist, writer, and educator. As an artist, I weave in collaboration with living Oyster mushrooms, using yarn that is colored by plants from my dye gardens. Activating regenerative agricultural strategies, I raise sheep on a farm in Northern New Mexico, where I live. My spinner’s flock provides wool for the homespun yarn that I use in these multispecies weavings. Interspecies narratives of regeneration are the foundation of my arts-based research. My research explores ecological storytelling, and relates to currents of thought in ecofeminism, neo-materialism and the expanded field within contemporary art. Recent writings can be found in two new anthologies: Multispecies Storytelling in Intermedial Practices (Punctum Press, 2022) and EcoArt in Action: Activities, Case Studies and Provocations for Classrooms and Communities (NYU Press, 2022).

What’s the most interesting thing you have learned from a student?

It is hard to decide. One of my students made bread from yeast she collected from her own body. Another taught our learning community his ancestral Chinese recipes for making dumplings. But one of my favorites was the student who would always have a little stash of local materials with him, and he would make small gifts for people he met during the graduate program’s field-based research trips. I learned from him that generosity can be light, quick and witty.