CEREMONY FOR BEING WITH, NO. 1 / CEREMONY FOR BEING WITH SALMON RIVER, 2023 / Tilke Elkins

timeframe: invoked in 01.23, painted in 02.23, sold in 11.24, rent on-going, end date 11.27 or 11.30

materials : found wood scrap, five-and-a-half inches by twelve inches, mineral and carbon pigments site-specifically foraged & ground into paint — a handful of soft mineral clumps & rocks in red, yellow, and blue iron oxides, white clay, and charcoal from a burned douglas fir stump

participants: Sitka Center for Art & Ecology community, artist/Grand Ronde tribal elder Ann ‘Nestucca’ Lewis, Sitka residents artist Orchidia Violetta and Danielle Vogel, high school teachers, and 7 high school students

supporter/purchaser: Kelly Booth

land stewards: Chachalu Museum & Cultural Center; contact David Harrelson

description

this ceremony begins on the rocky beach the mouth of the Salmon River on Nechesni/Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde lands (colonially known as Cascade Head, Oregon) and was initiated during an artist residency at the Sitka Center for Art & Ecology in February 2023. the foot-long piece of wave-worn 2 x 6 that washed up on the shore holds an exploration of color juxtapositions or ‘color tests’ made with crushed iron oxide minerals & charcoal from a massive burned douglas fir stump. these pigments form a nexus point for a network of relationships, and will eventually return to the river and ocean tides.

the first network of relationships, between artist tilke elkins and the inter-being community at the estuary formed during tilke’s daily time at the convergence of river and ocean, for five weeks in january and february, 2023. tilke settled into time ‘being with’ the river, the ocean, and the layers of sandy and rocky beaches between the two, connecting with the loose, wave smoothed minerals, and the minerals in the crumbling cliffs along the shore. sitting quietly grinding small fragments of soft rocks and hard clays into a wet paste between hard rocks, tilke also took part in intuitive dialogues with an otter, many seals, a pacific wren, fox sparrows, nettles, an alder tree with a low, bench-like branch, muscles, seaweed, diving ducks, several very old sitka spruces and a group of eagles.

the next ring of relationships formed between the place, tilke, and other humans.

tilke received much support and stories about the Sitka center land and past residents from assistant director, Nancy Newman and administrative director Nicola Harrison. reading through the record of past residents who stayed in the cabin assigned to her, she observed a note from artist & friend Nina Elder: a crossing of paths through time. walking high on the hills overlooking the ocean, she thought of the passages in the chapter Burning Cascade Head, from Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer, written during Kimmerer’s residency at Sitka.

Sitka Center artist residents, Danielle Vogel and Orquidia Violeta were co-dialoguers with the inter-being communities at the confluence of the river and the pacific ocean. textile artist Orquidia held conversations with elk and moss, making intricate cloth prayers — including Wapiti and Salmon Year. poet / ceremonialist Danielle Vogel recorded the underwater songs of the estuary and collaborated with plants and place to make liquid extract essences which hold the energetic imprint of the place. conversations about art-as-ceremony were influential. Orquidia, Danielle and tilke spent wordless time being with these communities — in particular, one night during a full moon, they climbed a dead tree on the edge of the estuary and dialogued with the wind.

during a visit to the Chachalu Museum and Cultural Center, tilke, held a local stone mortar and pestle that was several thousand years old. she briefly met David Harrelson, the historian for the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, who later connected her to artist and Grand Ronde tribal elder Ann ‘Nestucca’ Lewis, whose Nechesni relative once lived down the beach from the Salmon River. Lewis and four friends visited tilke at Sitka, where they gathered pigments, made paint and spent time being with an ancient ochre site.

months after the residency ended, tilke returned to Sitka to meet at the estuary with a group of seven art students from Nestucca High School, along with Sitka youth program director Leeauna Perry and Nestucca High art teacher Sydney Leja. together they explored the riverbanks and beaches, looking at ochres, making paint, and painting the surfaces of found wood. one student, who particularly connected with the pigments, interned at Sitka later that summer and took an oil painting class. after time with the students, tilke stayed an extra night at Sitka — a gift in reciprocity for time with the youth — and painted with beach charcoal in a sitka spruce grove with trees who she got to know during her residency, continuing the conversation.

financial model: extending relationships

through Wild Pigment Project social media, tilke was approached by artist / book designer Kelly Booth, who was interested in a supportive relationship in the ceremony. in novemebr 2024, Booth purchased the board that the Ceremony for Being With Salmon River painting sits on, for $222.00, and rented the pigments for $111.00 / year — 150% to 600% of the sale price for the piece. the rent money goes annually to the Chalalu Museum and Cultural Center, facilitated by David Harrelson. at the end of a three or six year cycle, the pigments will be washed off the board and returned — by Kelly, tilke, or both – to the place where they were ground to paint and painted. Booth will retain the board. tilke will receive an artists’ resale commission if the board is resold at any time, and if sold before the end of the first three-year term, any new buyer(s) will continue the pigment ‘rent’ agreement.

the painting hangs on a wall in an area in Booth’s house on Ohlone lands (cka the Bay Area, CA) where she often holds small, intimate ceremonies with friends, and has been the focus of many ongoing conversations.