Art by Frances Bates
100 Feet of Art and History (2024)
Art to Change the World collaborated with the Mill City Museum to create an installation during the Stone Arch Bridge Festival. Six artists were chosen to make something related to the Mississippi River and the history of grain milling. Sadie Ward and I decided to work together to create a sort of art bridge for our part of the installation. Sadie used scraps of denim as the water and I used fabric and found objects to represent the bridge.
This was an interactive installation so each artists had an activity to go along with their art. On the denim strips you could write a memory of the Mississippi River weave it into the fence. For my found objects you could draw something on a paint chip and clip it to the fence or leave a message about how you are sustainable to be put in the test tubes already attached to the fence. During the two day festival we had many people participate as you can see by the difference between the last two photos. This installation will stay up until some time in August, during which Sadie and I hope people will continue to add to it.
https://www.arttochangetheworld.org/acw-mill-city-museum-stone-arch-festival-project/
Mississippi River Pearl (2022)
I worked with a group of people to make a large scale art piece out of everything we find. These are photos of some of the parts I worked on for the project. It is a beautiful, functional, and educational work of art which you can find out more about it by clicking the link below.
https://www.arttochangetheworld.org/mississippi-management-and-watershed-project/
Autofocus (2018)
This piece is about how we see the world through our phones. It is constructed out of wood, cardboard, foam, and a paper heart suspended by fishing line in the center. You can stand behind the four foot phone and appear as if you reality is getting "liked" similar to an Instagram post.
Rubrum Box (2017)
This piece was created to showcase the color red. Closed it just looks like a plain four foot tall wood box. When opened you see many random items spray painted red.
Wire Iguana (2015)
The interesting skin texture and body shape of an iguana seemed like a fun challenge to replicate in wire. I used all the same type of wire creating variation using different gauges (sizes). For parts of it I had to spiralize the wire.
