Not so very long ago, the land we now call Tryon Life Community Farm was the hunting grounds of  the Tualatin Kalapuya and the Clackamas Chinook.

For thousands of years they thrived, until 200 years ago devastating diseases swept through their villages severely reducing the population. Before they had a chance to recover, waves of Euro-American colonization hit the land we now call Oregon. Years of struggle to retain tribal autonomy followed, as did many promises made and broken by the United States government. Mounting pressure for more land by white settlers led the federal government to extinguish all native claim to land in the Willamette and Tualatin valleys and forcibly remove the tribes to the Grande Ronde and other reservations in 1855.

The government then set about giving the land away to Euro-American settlers, including Hotchkiss Socrates Tryon who claimed the valley which is now his namesake park. His name is well known, even included in the name of our land project, while those from whom the land was stolen have been forgotten by many.

Why do you need to know this?  Learning and sharing the history of this land, and that of all western Oregon, is key to understanding why those who visit, volunteer, come to classes, and enjoy events here, have been predominately white. And why this needs to change.

Over the past few years, TLC Farm has been actively reshaping itself to counter this legacy of colonialism.  To do so, a new collective created by and for people of color has taken root on this land.  The Sacred Lands Alliance is working with TLC Farm volunteers to make the land and programs more accessible for frontline communities who have been alienated from thier lands. 

We can't undo the past, but we can absolutely shape the future.

Thanks for your part in making the future more just and equitable, here at TLC Farm and in all the places we collectively strive for justice.

We are seeking a visual artist/designer to assist in the completion of our educational signage project. 

About the Project

   Here at TLC Farm, we are re-embodying and re-weaving ancient stories of what it is to be alive. We take as our base operating principle the fact that all systems, and all elements of each system, are interconnected, and that the deepest knowledge and understanding comes from looking at a subject within the context of the greater whole(s) in which it is embedded.

   As a land-based project which is open to the public 6 days of the week, we have the need for accessible, thorough and comprehensive signage so that visitors to the land are able to self-educate.  We have been developing concepts and design ideas for 9 educational signs for the past several months, and are now ready to move into the finalized design & production process.

   In some ways, each sign on this tour is telling the same story: one of the great web of life in which we find ourselves suspended. That said, each sign focuses on a different aspect of the web, magnifying one piece of what knowledge and skills are necessary for humans to relearn in order to live in harmony with our Mother Earth.

About the Residency

   In exchange for 25 hours of work a week (at least 15 of which must be spent on the land sign project) we will offer you space for a tent on our land, the opportunity to live in a thriving land-based community and support around integration into and completion of the project.  We ask $5 a day for food, and would welcome you to arrive generally in May and to stay through the end of August, with a project completion deadline of no later than September 1st.

   We are looking for a person who both has a developed understanding of the concepts about which the signs are meant to educate – including colonialism, permaculture, earth-based spirituality, bioregionalism, organic gardening, natural building, watershed ecology, native rights, etc. – as well as the ability to translate these relatively complex concepts into a coherent series of interconnected images.  The balance of design work to art production in this residency is yet to be determined, and will develop as the summer and project progress.

How To Apply

   Please send electronic copies of the work you feel best represents your ability to undertake this project along with answers to the following questions to maralena@tryonfarm.org

1. Who are you?  What are you doing?  How does this project interface with and build upon the time you have already spent upon this earth?
2. Tell us about your experiences living in community.
3. Tell us about your relationship with the land.
4. How do you work collaboratively as an artist?  As a designer?
5. How would you illustrate, with minimal text, the concepts of globalization and re-localization?
6. How will you deal with potentially having to do your creative work in a shared-use space in which there might be meetings, children and a general feeling of scrappiness and DIYishness?
7. How will you deal with the dynamic of this being a position which requires a lot of self-direction and motivation within the context of the community having a clear idea of the product desired and already having put a lot of foundational work into the project?
8. Is there anything else you’d like us to know?

Join us and the Beehive Collective (www.beehivecollective.org) for an afternoon of collaborative creative process and cross-pollination.

To begin, the Bees will lead us through their method of designing and creating large-scale collaborative murals which illustrate complex, interconnected concepts through the use of metaphor-rich imagery and visual narrative.  We will focus our collective creative attention on developing ideas and images for TLC Farm's educational land signs, working with concepts of social permaculture, decolonization, bioregionalism, watershed health, TLC Farm's educational programming, intentional community and more!  This will be a participatory, co-created artistic process - please come even if you've never before been here or thought much about any of this.

Afterwards, the Bees will present their newest mural, The True Cost of Coal, which tells the story of the devastating ecological effects of mountain top removal coal mining in Appalachia and the grassroots resistance that is flourishing in the region.

We will be running a shuttle from People's Coop (SE 21st and Tibbetts), meeting at 1:15 and leaving by 1:30. The shuttle will return to People's by 6:45.   This workshop is a by-donation event, with no one turned away for lack of funds.  Please RSVP to maralena.murphy@gmail.com so we can know about how many folk to expect.  We look forward to seeing you!