CONTACT
connect@ceremoniedart.org
Bio
Tilke Elkins is an artist, writer, and curator based in O’gah P’Ogeh Owingeh (cka Santa Fe, NM), focused on site-specific painting and social practice art. Tilke has worked with mineral and botanical pigments since 2007, and founded Wild Pigment Project, a collaborative initiative she established in 2019 to promote ecological balance and regenerative economies through a passion for wild pigments, their places of origin, and their cultural histories. Through Ground Bright, a wild pigment subscription program, the project raised monthly funds for land and cultural stewardship organizations, sending educational pigment packets to artists internationally, and published a regular newsletter, Pied Midden, featuring interviews with pigment practitioners, researchers and activists.
Tilke regularly holds group sessions, online and in-person, for the co-navigation of collaborations with plants, minerals, animals, stars, and other inter-beings. She has introduced principles of pigment practice to diverse creative communities, including Portland Community College, the University of Oregon, WildCraft Studio School, Lewis and Clark College, the Pacific Northwest College of Art and to arts educators worldwide through her online comprehensive course, Being With Pigments. Her most recent work was exhibited at form & concept gallery in Santa Fe along with her curated Wild Pigment Project Group Exhibition, which displayed the work of 28 international artists alongside their pigment packets.
Tilke’s most recent organization, Ceremonied Art, estblished in 2025, ca be found here.
Recent Work:
Records of Being Held, form & concept gallery, Fall 2022. Online exhibition guide here.
Curation:
Wild Pigment Project Group Exhibition at form & concept gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. See exhibition guide.
Pigments Revealed Symposium Online Exhibit, 2021.
Watch:
Being with Pigments video about the intersection between Tilke Elkins’ studio work and Wild Pigment Project.
Live Feedback Friday: Wild Pigment Project, a recording of a live Zoom presentation through Botanical Color’s Feedback Friday series.
Listen:
Interview with Matthew Chase-Daniel of Santa Fe’s Coffee and Culture.
Wild Pigment Project: Cultivating place-based relationships through wild botanical and mineral pigments interview with Kamea Chayne, on the Green Dreamer Podcast.
On Investigating Color with Natural Pigments, interview with Kelly Moody on Ground Shots Podcast.