Skill Share #2: Houseplants

Skill Share #2, hosted at MUST on 7/27/25, focused on houseplant care. We pooled our resources and gathered necessary supplies/donations to get the event started. This Skill Share included a pot-swap, a propagation swap, and a soil mixing + repotting station. I also designed and printed a free 8-page zine with instructions and tips for beginner houseplant parents. The response and turnout were great, and we facilitated a lot of learning with new friends.

Skill Share #1: Sewing

Skill Share came about when Juni Peraza, Shelby Stephens and myself connected with the shared goal to provide free community events where novices and experts alike can share in learning together around a central theme.

Skill Share #1, hosted at MUST on 4/12/25, focused on sewing. The three of us + our friends and community brought together several sewing machines, scrap fabric, and tons of supplies. Juni connected us with Tulsa City County Library who lent us iPads to help attendees access YouTube playlists that we curated to each specific sewing machine. We also set up a hand sewing station complete with beginner-friendly activities. The event was so much fun, an excellent show of community, and affirmed our belief that skill sharing events can remove barriers and intimidation from learning new skills.

Uncontrolled Self

Uncontrolled Self is a joint exhibition of sculptures by Austin Navrkal and mixed-media paintings by Kenzie Adair. Together, their work explores control over organic materials and finding reflections of humanity within those materials. Complementary abstract shapes echo between the works, creating a mélange of organic form and texture as you move through the space.

Knee Deep

Adair’s recent mixed-media works focus on the relationship between humankind, nature and fabrication. Creating from the standpoint of ecofeminist theory — the theory that the destruction of the natural world is directly linked to the suppression of women and marginalized communities — Adair’s work is an amalgamation of representations of the human body and symbols for nature, like flowers or raw fiber.

In these layered paintings, the artist highlights the attempts to replace or control the natural through synthetic substitutes, and the resulting disconnection between humans and the environment.

Works presented in "Knee Deep" use digitally constructed patterns printed on chiffon as their substrate. These patterns are formed through collaging snippets of female bodies in kaleidoscopic formations. On this delicate printed fabric, the artist layers paint, epoxy resin, pressed flowers, plastic objects, fibers, and synthetic and natural fabrics. Through their overlapping, Adair explores the indiscernibility between natural and fabricated, and the increasing amount of artificiality in imagery, material and experiences in popular culture.

Curious Deviations

My mixed media piece entitled Ladylike was chosen for the juried show Curious Deviations at Non-Fiction Gallery in Savannah, GA and was awarded Honorable Mention.

Event description: "Non-Fiction presents Curious Deviations, a juried exhibition of 27 artists exploring the concept of the uncanny. Through diverse style and medium, the artists encapsulate both the familiar and strange, feelings of tension, eeriness, or disquiet."

Kayla Goggin of Art Rise Savannah wrote in her review of Curious Deviations:

"Throng Kim’s Disco Mind, Zhenjie Dong’s Pixie and the Red Cross Society of China and Kenzie [Adair]’s Ladylike deal with themes of mystery and the eeriness of untold identity. [Adair]’s piece seems to offer some nebulous feminist commentary, perhaps referencing Hannah Wilke’s Starification Object Series with its similar chewed gum motif obscuring the identity or beauty of a woman."