Instagram story viewer> @ripleyfolio> Tagged

ripleyfolio

@ripleyfolio

undefined

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Recent work in the field and in our studio on a public art project for @woodstocklibrary .

We mapped the coordinates of over 130 living American chestnut stump sprouts along the trail up Overlook Mountain. These short-lived, resilient shoots have grown again and again where mature trees were lost to chestnut blight over a century ago. Where American chestnut once filled the canopy, we can still find it in the understory.

Another species we found in abundance on Overlook: timber rattlesnakes!

50

3

Words cannot express what these people and this place means to me. I’ve grown and changed immensely here and been supported through all of it. I am so thankful for the community that has surrounded me here. I will miss them so so much. 💕

103

25

💙🧡Humans of the Art Department🧡💙
We loved greeting prospective students today at the @sunynewpaltz accepted student day! Thanks to all the volunteers.
🦢🦜go hawks🦩🦚
•
#sunynewpaltz #npart #classof2030

206

5

Here’s a recap of our artists-in-residence @michaelasbill and @ripleyfolio of @processingcollapse who, over the course of seven weeks, transformed the YES Gallery into a research and design studio to develop a public art proposal for the @woodstocklibrary 🍃
_____

“Noticing American chestnut stump sprouts on Overlook Mountain during our first week in residence was the starting point for our project. We realized that the functionally extinct tree was a major presence in the forest at the time when ‘the story of modern Woodstock really begins’.

We are indebted to all those who stopped by during our residency to have conversations with us about the project.

We’d like to offer a special thanks to Tara Foley who invited us into the space.

Emily Jones, the dedicated archivist at WAAM, located information and artworks that were vital to our research trajectory.

Ira Brandes brought us a generous gift of two antique chestnut boards.

Leslie Gerber, Woodstock Library trustee, invited us to speak with the library board.

We thank Woodstock Library director Ivy Gocker for embracing our project and joining us on our final day in residence to hear our preliminary proposal.

We look forward to making a formal proposal before the end of the year.”

- Michael Asbill and Ripley Butterfield, Processing Collapse

Thank YOU, Michael and Ripley, for sharing your process and concepts with us and the community!

You can read their weekly residency recaps at processingcollapse.com

32

2

Peeling the bark from an uprooted Eastern hemlock.

Stands of hemlocks in varying states of death and decline are becoming ubiquitous in New York, where this tree has defined huge swathes of our ecosystem. The distinct shade and cool floor of hemlock forests are becoming eerily bright as branches fall and boughs are drained of life by the hemlock woolly adelgid.

Hemlocks had only just began to reestablish in parts of the Catskills and Hudson Valley where they were obliterated by the 19th century leather tanning industry. Barkpeelers spent the spring and summer felling, scoring, and peeling hemlocks to harvest their tannin-rich bark. The vast majority of trees were left to rot in the clearings; hemlock has never been considered good lumber.

The present collapse of hemlock has been a prolonged spiral. Adelgid populations initially stalled in the tree’s northern range because of freezing winters. As our yearly temperatures rise, it becomes more and more successful.

The laborers who did the footwork of denuding hemlock forests in the 19th century would have experienced the intense fuchsia color of hemlock’s inner bark as they split it. They would have smelled a rich, spiced, astringent scent as they pried the bark off with their bark spuds. And as hemlock disappeared, they saw the forest shift to hardwood saplings and underbrush.

In that story of extraction exists a relationship to trees that feels relevant, and strangely absent, today.
As we actively lose Eastern hemlock, our work is to see, acknowledge, and fall in love with its complex life and history in this landscape.

(Last two slides are from Peeling and Piling Bark for Prattsville Tannery, c. 1850)

@npsculpture @np_fpa #Easternhemlock #ecoart #sociallyengagedart #publicart #hemlockwoollyadelgid

90

9

It’s been a busy time for Processing Collapse!

At @waamart we’re pinpointing connections between the onset of chestnut blight and the rise of artist colonies in Woodstock. We’ve mapped the stump sprouts—living remnants of the former forest—on Overlook Mountain, and found an amazingly dense population there (over 50 just beside the trail!) Last week we were gifted two antique chestnut boards by Ira Brandes. We hope to use this material, along with stump sprout wood, to craft our work for the Woodstock Library.

We have also been busy studying American chestnut, Eastern hemlock, and white ash in other parts of our research radius. Yesterday we made a formal proposal for a public artwork centered on the ash collapse for the Rosendale Library.

We’re also taking part in the @np_fpa @npmfa Composium! Stay tuned for more information about our Carbon Harvest in the Eco Art Lab (Saturday 3:30-6:00).

106

1

WAAM residency dispatch (weeks 1 & 2)

To many, the history of Woodstock begins with the establishment of the Byrdcliffe and Maverick arts colonies in the first few years of the 20th century. Yet the landscape that Ralph Radcliffe Whitehead, Jane Byrd McCall, Bolton Brown and Hervey White selected as the setting for a utopian experiment was fresh off a century of deep extraction. We’ve been reading Alf Evers’ Woodstock: History of an American Town, and learning about how agriculture, leather tanning, glass fabrication and other local industries irrevocably altered the forest.

On our first research day in Woodstock we took a walk on the trail ascending Overlook Mountain. There were numerous American chestnut stump sprouts growing beside the path. As soon as we spotted one of those beautiful serrated leaves, we saw more and more of them. The tallest of the young trees were 15-20ft tall, but very thin. It seems like in most forests that have been preserved since the early 20th century we can reliably find young chestnut trees. They return again and again from the same stump that originally succumbed to chestnut blight—before falling into decline themselves.

The persistent presence of these short-lived sprouts helps us imagine the former forest. Woodstock’s early artists were working among dying American chestnut trees, and, we soon discovered, sometimes used the remnants for their own work.

An enormous privilege of working in the YES Gallery is our proximity to the WAAM archive, and wonderful archivist, Emily Jones. A bit of digging through the archives last Thursday revealed that the iconic Maverick Horse was crafted from American chestnut! One article even describes the work as being carved from a “hollow log.” Given that the sculpture was made in 1924, it seems probable that dead, blighted chestnut trees were readily available.

(Read the full update at processingcollapse.com/woodstock)

73

1

We’re thrilled to welcome @michaelasbill and @ripleyfolio to the YES Gallery as our artists-in-residence for their public art project @processingcollapse.
⁣
Through October 15, the YES Gallery will become a research center for a permanent artwork proposal at the new @WoodstockLibrary. ⁣
⁣
The walls will become an active project mind map. As the work evolves and ideas find focus, the space will slowly transform into a design studio where Asbill and Butterfield begin to structure and visualize emerging concepts. ⁣
⁣
The artists will be present for public engagement from 2-5 PM every Thursday for the duration of this exhibition.⁣
⁣
Please stop by during this time to engage in conversation and collaboration!

80

8

We want to thank Birdy’s House in Delhi, New York for offering us a 2-week residency this summer. The space, a two-story house in the heart of town, is quiet, welcoming, and perfect for focused work. The owner/director/host (and writer!) Kay Keppler offers each resident a private bedroom and generously prepares all the meals. We encourage creatives who are looking for a comfortable space that is conducive to productivity to make an application for the 2026 season.

Our time in residence was divided into two visits. The first week, in mid-July, gave us an invaluable opportunity to explore the Western edge of our research area. We met with NYCDEP forester and vintage baseball enthusiast Collin Miller (see our earlier post), visited John Burroughs Woodchuck Lodge, and met with librarians in Roxbury and Fleischmanns.

The second visit, a month later, provided us with vital time to get organized after a hugely productive summer. We’re hard at work updating our website (check it out at processingcollapse.com), preparing for our residency at the Woodstock Artists Association, and planning a project with the Skene Memorial Library. We also found time to visit Pratt Rock and the Historical Society of Woodstock.

87

1

Over the past few weeks we constructed a solar kiln that will allow us to dry the wood we harvest for library projects.

The slanted structure is positioned to receive as much direct sunlight as possible. The interior is painted black for maximum heat absorption. Inside, a fan circulates the warm air while vents near the bottom allow evaporation to escape. We’re monitoring the temperature and relative humidity inside as it goes through heating and cooling cycles each day.

It’s important that we reduce the moisture content of our wood to 6-8% so that the permanent artworks we make for public libraries remain stable and strong. This tool will make it possible for us to process our own lumber and create work from the remnants of forest collapse.

@npsculpture #sociallyengagedart #ecoart #publiclibraries #sculpture

59

0

Is this Oak Wilt?

We’ve noticed that oak trees are falling frequently in the forest near our studio in Accord. We’ll hear the intense sound of collapse midday, without any storm or wind event to point to.

Today we saw a DEC notice about Oak Wilt, a fungal disease that has been identified in only a few NY counties to the north and south of us. We took a walk to see if we might discover signs of infection. The patterns of leaf discoloration seem consistent with what we’re reading about.

We’re going to keep paying attention.

@nysdec #oak #oakwilt #sociallyengagedart #publicart #ecoart #accordny

33

2

Earlier this week, we met with Collin Miller, a NYC DEP Watershed Forester and captain of the Mountain Athletic Club vintage base ball team.

Collin walked us through some of the land he has been working on in Delaware County. We discussed different forest management approaches for ecological concerns and spent time at a MaMa (Managing and Monitoring Ash) site. The MaMa program is identifying potential “lingering ash” in hopes of finding trees with resistance to Emerald Ash Borers.

Collin also showed us examples of parasitoid wasps (which feed on EAB) that DEP is releasing and tracking.

We also talked extensively about historic baseball. We can’t wait to use this knowledge to turn some ashwood bats from local trees and craft baseballs for libraries.

@delcovbb @macvb1895 #ecoart #emeraldashborer #ashtree #nycdep #vintagebaseball #delawarecounty #publiclibrary #sociallyengagedart

37

1