Michael and Heather Llewellyn

Born in 1960s California, in the United States of America
Residing and working in California, in the United States of America

Photography:

1988 – Present:         Specializations: Environmental and Phenotypic Portraiture and Lithography Film Printing

Arts based Community and Public Engagement Projects:

2017 – Present: The Future Forest Cycle

2019 – Present: The Future Forest Cultural Trail - Shifting the cultural history of the Tahoe Truckee region from an economic to a more inclusive ecological perspective.

2017 – Present:  The Sagehen Forest Project Portraiture Series - Documenting the people who participated in creating the collaborative and science-grounded approach that eventually led to a California statewide policy shift in forest management priorities from purely economic to broader, positive forest health outcomes.

2017 – 9/2022: FOREST⇌FIRE - A collaboration between artists, scientists and policy makers engaging the Tahoe-Truckee community in the history of the Sierra Nevada forest’s ecological relationship with fire, the root causes of catastrophic fire in the Sierra Nevada, and what can be done to bring the forest back into balance with fire, through:

  • The FOREST⇌FIRE exhibit, 12/2021 - 9/2022, Truckee Community Recreation Center, Truckee, CA

  • Local fire ecology embedded into the Tahoe Truckee Unified School District’s K-12 educational curriculum for three years and guided field trips to the FOREST⇌FIRE exhibit for 700 students

  • Writing and directing a two-minute animation for children and their parents: A Fire For All

  • Editing a multi-award winning children’s book: Who Needs A Forest Fire?

  • Free public speaker series featuring U.S. Forest Service fire, forest, water, soil, and smoke experts

  • Forty-one free civic leadership tours of the FOREST⇌FIRE exhibit

Community Partners: University of California, Berkeley - Sagehen Creek Field Station, Truckee Donner Recreation and Park District, Nevada County Arts Council, Sierra Watershed Education Partnerships, and the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California

2017 – Present: Picture This

Educational programming supporting foster teens by teaching picture-making with cameras as a tool for creative self expression: Charis Youth Center Recreation Room, Grass Valley, CA, and Blue Oaks Center for Equestrian Arts and Education, Smartsville, CA, USA

Community Partners: Charis Youth Center and Nevada County Arts Council

2019: Renegade Literati

Poetry and Art Engagement Series, Sacramento City Hall, Sacramento, CA, USA

Community Partner: Indigo Moor, Sacramento Poet Laureate (Emeritus), Sacramento, CA, USA

 

2015 – 2018: Image Nation

Educational and public engagement programming focusing on the challenges veterans face, particularly from PTSD, through teaching photography as a tool of creative self-expression and public exhibitions of the resulting bodies of work.

  • 1st Exhibition:  May - July, 2016, Eric W. Rood Administration Center, Nevada City, CA, USA

  • 2nd Exhibition:  March - June, 2017, Truckee Community Recreation Center, Truckee, CA

  • 3rd Exhibition:  January - May, 2018, Eric W. Rood Administration Center, Nevada City, CA

Community Partners: Welcome Home Vets, Nevada County Arts Council, Truckee Public Arts Commission and Truckee Donner Recreation and Park District

Awards:

2018: 2018 Reserve Artist Naturalist Award, University of California - Natural Reserve System, Truckee, CA, USA

Residencies:

2018: Artist in Residence Program, University of California, Berkeley – Sagehen Creek Field Station, Truckee CA, USA, in collaboration with the Center for Art + Environment, Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV, USA

 2015: Artist in Residence Program, Nevada County Arts Council, Nevada County, CA

Grants:  

2015 Veterans in the Arts, California Arts Council, Sacramento, CA, USA

2016 Veterans in the Arts, California Arts Council, Sacramento, CA, USA

2017 Quick Grant, Center for Cultural Innovation, Los Angeles, CA, USA

2017 Jump Starts, California Arts Council, Sacramento, CA, USA

2018 Jump Starts, California Arts Council, Sacramento, CA, USA

2019 Jump Starts, California Arts Council, Sacramento, CA, USA

2019 California Creative Communities, California Arts Council, Sacramento, CA USA

2019 Humanities for All, California Humanities, San Francisco, CA, USA

2019 The Nature Fund, Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation, Truckee, CA, USA

2019 Queen of Hearts Fund, Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation, Truckee, CA, USA

2019 Discretionary Funds, Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation, Truckee, CA, USA

2019 Discretionary Funds, Tahoe Truckee Excellence In Education Foundation, Truckee, CA, USA

2019 California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire) - California Climate Investments, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, USA 

Selected Press:

Tess Thackara, Climate Exhibitions Look Beyond Declarations of Calamity, The New York Times, 2021 at https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/19/arts/climate-exhibitions.html

Martin Szillat, PBS Reno, ARTEFFECTS Segment, 2022, at https://watch.pbsreno.org/video/local-feature-episode-716-lziz1s/

Amy Alonzo, Truckee art exhibit explores history and future of Sierra wildfires, Reno Gazette Journal (Syndicated), 2021, at https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2021/12/21/forest-fire-art-exhibit-truckee-sierra-wildfires/8899164002/

Priya Hunter, Forest Fire Exhibit Opens, Tahoe Weekly 2021, https://yourtahoeguide.com/2021/12/forest%e2%87%8cfire-exhibit-opens/

Chaco Scott, Forest Fire exhibition in Truckee, CA features artwork, See Great Art, https://www.seegreatart.art/forest-fire-exhibition-in-truckee-ca-features-artwork/

Trish Moratto Litke, Bringing Healing Into Focus, Comstock’s Magazine, 2017, https://www.comstocksmag.com/web-only/bringing-healing-focus

Professional Contributions:

2022: Speakers, Playing with Fire: A Hot Symposium, E.A.R.T.H. Lab, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, USA

Archive: Center for Art + Environment, Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV, USA