Alex Wiseman & Michael Krochta

Alex Wiseman (featured in photo) was born on Mt. Tabor in SE Portland and grew up in the forests, high deserts, and intertidal zones of the Pacific NW. In 1993 Alex emigrated to Australia and lived there until returning to Portland in 2003.  Alex began exploring wildfire ecology and the creative possibilities of charcoal collected from burn perimeters during a 2015 residency at the environmental non-profit Bark. While in residence at Bark Alex met Michael Krochta. In 2016, as part of an exhibition in Richmond, VA, Alex led the first group of students into a burned area of the Smoky Mountains to collect charcoal and taught them to make pigment. In 2017 Alex invited Michael Krochta to co-lead scientifically informed, creatively inclined site visits to burned areas in the forest to show that such fire affected areas are not sites of devastation that we need to fear, but rather places of unique biodiversity, regenerative possibility, and self-renewal where we can deeply connect. Alex’s work with wildfire and charcoal has been exhibited nationally, featured in High Country News and Oregon Arts Watch, and included in “Fire Season” a publication examining art, activism, and fire ecology. Alex’s creative practice explores integration, balance, and patterns and conditions that help or hinder our ability to connect with ourselves, other humans, our animal siblings, plant relatives, and the biosphere. Alex has pursued multiple creative trajectories. They include drawing, painting, writing, music composition and production, experimental pedagogy, culinary performance, independent publishing, large scale event production, live cinema, social sculpture, interactive art, and the study of systems and how they evolve.

Alex (FKA Gary) transitioned in 2019, much of the work described above was completed under Alex’s former name.  

Fire Season Book

Oregon Arts Watch Article

 

Michael Krochta (bio photo in class listing) is the Forest Watch Director for Bark, a Portland-based non-profit whose mission is to transform Mt. Hood National Forest into a place where natural processes prevail, where wildlife thrives and where local communities have a social, cultural, and economic investment in its restoration and preservation. During his time at Bark, Michael’s work has contributed to thousands of acres of positive changes to proposed logging projects and has brought hundreds of volunteers and students into the forest to learn about and watchdog federally proposed activities surrounding Mt. Hood. Before working at Bark, Michael worked as a seasonal wildlife biologist, participated in numerous local community-based science efforts and environmental justice causes. Michael holds an Environmental Studies degree and is a certified Wilderness First Responder. In 2022, he will be joining the Earth, Environment and Society program at Portland State University to study the influences of natural disturbance,  land management, and climate change on water availability in our region.