Today we’d like to introduce you to Nathalie Miebach.
Nathalie, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I came to the arts later in life. I first went to Oberlin College and got a degree in Political Science and Chinese. After college, I lived in Southeast Asia for a while, where I started to meet a lot of artists. I then came back to the US, thinking I want to be an art teacher and went to graduate school for that. Once in the classroom, I realized that I really needed to better understand what it means to be a working artist before I could be the kind of teacher I wanted to be. So, I went back again and got an MFA in Sculpture. It really wasn’t until I found that I could merge my interests in science with the making of art that I felt comfortable with the idea of calling myself an artist. This meandering road prepared me to be very adaptable to change and to be able to speak about what I do outside the art context.
This merging of basket and astronomy began by chance in 2000, when I attended astronomy classes at Harvard University while studying basket weaving with a local craft artist. Serendipitously, both classes fell on the same day, so that I would bring all my buckets, reed and half-finished baskets with me into the lecture hall. Astronomy was fascinating, but frustrating. I never seemed to be able to get a real sense of the time and space dimension we talked about in class, because everything we ever looked at was on the two-dimensional plane of the projector wall. At some point, the light bulb went off in my head that I could actually use basket weaving as a three-dimensional grid through which to translate astronomical data with to get a more tactile, physical sense of what I was learning about in astronomy. For my “final paper”, I turned in a sculptural translation of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, looking at the evolutionary stages of stars. Professor Chaisson was very open-minded, loved it and promptly invited me to share the sculpture at science conference organized by the Wright Center for Science Education.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I made the decision to be a full-time artist just when the recession hit in the early 2000s. That meant, that I had to find multiple ways to pay the bills to keep the studio practice going as well as being able to cover the basics. It’s never been an easy road for me financially and I find myself constantly trying out new things to help fund my work. Despite all that, I wouldn’t change a thing because being independent and running my own studio is priceless. I may never own that big yacht or that large mansion on Cape Cod, but the freedom I feel when I make my work and am able to share it with people all over the country is unbelievably rewarding.
One thing I learned through all this is that being an artist means a lot of work. I hardly every have weekends and easily work 8-10 hours a day. It’s not just building the work, but it’s all the networking, writing grants, building crates, writing emails and trying to keep up with social media, etc. that keeps the studio going.
It’s important also to stay honest with your work. When you have attained a certain level of success or you happen to create a series of works that are popular, there is often the pressure to keep doing the same thing again and again. But I find that just deadens the work and I no longer feel a connection to the studio. Making good work doesn’t really get any easier with time. I’m just more comfortable now with the idea that failing and not knowing exactly what I am doing is vital in helping me make work I am interested in.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about your business – what should we know?
I am best known for my work in data-visualization, especially the application of basket weaving and musical notation as somewhat unorthodox methods of data translation. The work explores possibilities and provokes expectations in both science and art – how artistic processes can further our understanding of a scientific phenomenon, and how the integration of science can provide new trajectories into artistic processes. By utilizing artistic and musical processes in combination with science data, I am questioning and expanding the traditional boundaries through which science data has been visually translated (ex: graphs, diagrams), while at the same time provoking expectations of what kind of visual vocabulary is considered to be in the domain of ‘science’ or ‘art’.
Visualizing and musically interpreting weather data through musical scores, sculpture and installations offer alternative ways of understanding complex systems (i.e. weather), which are conventionally presented to viewers solely through the lens of science. I collect my data using my own weather instruments or accessing data from satellites, off-shore ocean buoys or weather stations through the Internet. The data is generally focused on specific meteorological events that interact with particular coastal ecosystems. These numbers are then translated into woven sculptures or through musical notations to be used in collaborative performances, without compromising the scientific accurateness of the information.
So much of the media coverage is focused on the challenges facing women today, but what about the opportunities? Do you feel there are any opportunities that women are particularly well positioned for?
I have to be honest and say that I have never felt disadvantaged in the arts because I am a woman. At the end of the day, I want to believe that artists are judged by the quality of their work and nothing else.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.nathaliemiebach.com
- Email: n_miebach@hotmail.com
- Instagram: @miebachsculpture
- Facebook: Nathalie Miebach
Image Credit:
Nathalie Miebach (except: The Burden of Every Drop: Jean-Micheal Seminaro)
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