Iris Rountree is a papermaker, sculptor, and installation artist located Western North Carolina.
Raised in the mountains of Western North Carolina, the rural landscape and its changes inspire most of her creative work which has ranged over the years from drawing, ceramics, sculpture, to letterpress, papermaking, and more. She received her BA in sculpture & ceramics from Warren Wilson College in 2017 where she first combined her love of plants with her creative work. She has spent the last few years in Sonoma County, CA where she has focused on making work with the natural landscape of Northern California observing the effects of fire and drought on the land and in people's lives. Back in North Carolina for the next year she is currently focusing on a project about forest levels and warming temperatures.
Artist Statement
My creative work is always influenced by the natural world and often stems from observations of the subtle and not so subtle changes within nature. Through the seasons plants grow, bloom, change color, go dormant or die and each window is often small and easy to miss. Natural disasters and the effects of climate change have altered the landscape through fires, floods, drought, invasive species, extinction. The ripple effects linger on the land as we all try to adapt around what is changing right in front of us. All of these changes whether it be elevation, ecosystems, seasons, or the color of different flowers are what I try to capture and explore deeper in my creative work.
I use gathered plants and natural elements in my papermaking and create installation sculptures using the paper I’ve made. Each batch of paper has the textures and colors from different plants or marks made on the paper afterwards. The paper is cut and rolled into circles or assembled into collage. This repetitive process repeated over and over becomes meditative and mimics natural forms such as leaves, petals, snowfall, cells, rain. A single form on its own sometimes is underwhelming, but assembled alongside many others it becomes something larger and more grand.
CV
Education
2017 - Warren Wilson College, BA in Sculpture & Ceramics, Asheville, NC
Shows
2023 - Retrospective: In a New Light, Tint Gallery, San Francisco
2022 - PULP: Book & Paper Arts, Sebastopol, CA
2022 - Growing Together, Siy Gallery, San Carlos, CA
2022 - Lay Bare, Tint Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2022 - Winter Exhibition, Gallery Lulo, Healdsburg, CA
2021 - Botanical Art & Illustration, Las Laguna Art Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA
2021 - Elements of Nature, Siy Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2017 - Slip & Pulp, Warren Wilson College Gallery, Asheville, NC
2016 - Wax & Wane, Pop up art show, Swannanoa, NC
2016 - Student Art Show, Warren Wilson College Gallery, Asheville, NC
Courses, Internships, & Grants
2023 - NC Art Council Artist Support Grant
2022 - Farmette’s School of Papermaking
2019 - Papermaking Workshop, Santa Rosa, CA
2019 - Ceramic Intern, McWhirter Pottery, Burnsville, NC
2018 - Experimental Editions Books & Letterpress, Penland School of Crafts, Spruce Pine, NC
Nominations, Publications, & Private Collections
2022 - ‘Drought 1’ in private collection in San Francisco
2022 - ‘Drought 2’ in private collection in San Francisco, CA
2022 - ‘Zinnias’ in private collection in San Francisco, CA
2022 - ‘July to June’ in private collection in San Francisco, CA
2022 - ‘Pieces of Drought’ in private collection in Santa Rosa, CA
2017 - Windgate Fellowship Nomination
2017 - Auspex Undergrad Research Journal, Cover Art