About Merrill Swim

I am a printmaker and mixed media artist working through the inspirations of my world travels, road trips, biking and live music. My process involves creating a combination of block prints, painting and photography with the use of recycled maps, wood and other mixed media. My images come directly from my time spent traveling, biking, camping, snowboarding and enjoying live music in my "happy places," places I feel should have more awareness and preservation because of their unique landscapes, people or worth to society as a whole. The "bigger picture" of my art is that some places are worth sharing, supporting and keeping available for future generations. Creating a piece of art that connects the viewer to a specific place will cause them to focus on their own connections to that place, accessing personal thoughts and feelings, in a unique brain state of outward viewing and inward contemplation. Do we share the same "happy places"?

A key element in the preservation of our "happy places" is keeping the entire earth healthy, not just those places dear to our hearts. Recycling, reducing our impact and reusing materials is essential. As much as possible, I use existing materials in creating new art. Humans connect to recycled materials in so many ways, from imagining original use, to relating to social issues surrounding trash and cultivating minimalist culture. I currently get all the wood used in my pieces from a Santa Fe friend who has an endless supply of scrap wood (trash) generated by his cabinetry business. I have a large collection of maps from travels starting in my teens that would otherwise be useless, outdated and trash. I save all paper scraps, misprints and old/wierd art generated in my printing studio for collage work. I up-cycle all my old clothing and home fabrics into new clothes, art projects and cleaning supplies for printmaking. The only elements not recycled currently are the ink, paint, and wire hangings, although I would certainly jump at the chance to save anything like this from the landfill. When the ski shop I worked at went out of business, I was able to recycle a lot of the materials they were trashing into walls for my art tent, scrap wood for painting and other miscellaneous supplies, which enabled me to start my mobile art business.

My current body of work includes a series of "Bike Somewhere" pieces with recycled maps on recycled wood. I also have a new series inspired by live music at "green" festivals hosted by Planet Bluegrass, Conscience Alliance and others that have inspired how I think of zero impact gatherings and what is possible within a community of like-minded individuals. I am working on a line of up-cycled shirts, jewelry and accessories to compliment my wall art. I capture each "moment" to share with the audience that feeling of freedom that comes with being out there in it and hopefully inspiring others to travel and support live music. Look for my Art Bike, a mobile art installation in my bicycle trailer featuring historical art figures sculpted out of recycled materials and my own bike-themed paintings inspired by their artistic styles.

My own travels have included such far reaches of the planet as India, Chile, Switzerland, France and the Netherlands, as well as the places much closer to home in the Southwest. I grew up with competitive runner, Judo black belt, sailboat and ski racer parents and my brothers and I followed in their footsteps. Every weekend, you could find the Swims competing in athletic events in multiple disciplines. This included travelling all over the country. My first ski trip was at age 5 to compete in Equitable Family Ski Challenge in Vail, CO. While enrolled in a full-time ski academy for high school, I grew to appreciate all that travel can offer a person and the growth it inspires. Travel opens the mind to new experiences and cultures while inspiring a sense of adventure and spontaneity in life. I support my artistic career now with work as an adventure guide, taking guests electric biking and hiking in Santa Fe, NM. Live music can work in the same way as travel, while also fostering creativity, community and connectedness. These themes find their way into my artworks, as they are an intregal part of who I am at my core.

I began seriously creating art in Vermont, where I studied printmaking and studio arts at Johnson State College and received my Bachelor's of Fine Arts. For five years after that, I worked mostly with photography, acrylic and collage. In 2010, a group of friends and I founded the Santa Fe Art Co-op in the Design Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This co-op gallery gave us and our 20+ emerging artist members an affordable space to show our work and a community to share ideas. In 2011, I purchased an etching press that allows me to create woodcuts, monotypes and other intaglio prints in my home studio. In many ways, traveling is comparable to printmaking. You can make all the plans and preparations for a trip or a print, but until you step off the plane or pull up your paper, you have no idea what it will be like. It is this excitement that draws me to printmaking and leaves me yearning to travel.

Contact Info: merrillswimsart@gmail.com

Exhibitions

2022 May First Fridays Art Walk, Art Vendor, Chomp, Santa Fe, NM

Mixed media and recycled map art, recycled textile bags and earrings

2022 Santa Fe Community Art Build and Rally for Educators, Santa Fe, NM

Pen and ink illustration on paper and posterboard

2021 Recycle Santa Fe Art Festival, Santa Fe, NM

Recycled map art, handmade cards, block prints and textile jewelry and wall art

2021 Art Bike, Year 2 of my mobile art installation, Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Telluride, CO and Railyard Concert, Santa Fe, NM

Frida Kahlo and Pablo Picasso sculpted out of recycled materials and installed in my bicycle trailer painting side by side complete with my own bike-

themed paintings in their corresponding styles

2021 Topographic Lettering on photographic wall installation

Heritage Inspirations Tour and Bike Shop, The Inn and Spa at the Loretto, Santa Fe, NM

2020 Art Vendor at International Women's Day Celebration, Santa Fe, NM

Mixed media and recycled map art, block prints, and up-cycled bags

2016 Recycle Santa Fe Art Festival, Santa Fe, NM

Mixed media and recycled map art, handmade cards, block prints, recycled textile bags and earrings

2014 Recycle Santa Fe Art Festival, Santa Fe, NM

Recycled, Upcycled and Bicycle Art

2014 "Art on the Run," Mobile Concert Art, Broomfield and Boulder, CO

Widespread Panic and Leftover Salmon mixed media recycled map art

2014 "Zozobra Art Show," Single Piece at Zozofest, Santa Fe, NM

Mixed Media with Recycled Map

2014 "Classic Cruisin' Portland," Single Piece at The HART Gallery, Beaverton, OR,

Mixed Media with Recycled Map

2014 "Art in the Park," Art Vendor, Thompson Valley Art League Fair, Loveland, CO

Mixed media and recycled map art, block prints and recycled textiles

2014 "Wow 2014," Juried Group Show, Single Piece, CORE New Art Gallery, Denver, CO

Painting and Mixed Media

2014 "Art on the Run," Mobile Concert Art, Las Vegas, NV

Widespread Panic mixed media with recycled maps

2013-2014 "Bike Art," Ongoing group show of bicycle related art at Mellow Velo, Santa Fe, NM

Prints and mixed media with recycled maps

2013 Art Bike and Velo Gallery, Telluride Bluegrass Music Festival Telluride, CO

Mixed media, recycled map art and block prints for sale in Art Bike (baskets on my 70's cruiser bike)

2012 "Pushpin Clothespin," Pop-Up Art Show by Santa Fe Art Institute, ArtSee, After Hours Alliance, Cut +Paster Society, MIX Santa Fe hosted

by Lucky Bean Cafe at Sanbusco Market Center

Woodblock and Linoleum Prints

2012 "There's No Beer at the Mall," Holiday Art Show at Second Street Brewery at the Railyard, Santa Fe, NM

Prints and Mixed Media

2012 "Prints, Paintings and Collage," Exhibition and Open House at a Local Body Work Studio and Office, 1219 Luisa Street, Suite 3B, Santa Fe

Mixed media and recycled art

2012 "Mountain Vistas," Solo Exhibition at Second Street Brewery @The Railyard, Santa Fe, NM

New Prints, Paintings and Mixed Media

2010-2012 Ongoing Group Show, Santa Fe Art Co-op, Santa Fe, NM

Mixed Media and Prints

2006-2012 "Prints," Art at The Alchemist Brewery, Waterbury, VT

Monoprint and Monotype

2011 Reporter/ A.H.A. Progressive Arts Festival, Art Vendor, Railyard Park, Santa Fe, NM

Mixed Media and Woodblock Prints

2011 "Travel Reflections," Solo Exhibition at 2nd Street Brewery, Santa Fe, NM

Mixed Media, Photography and Woodblock Prints

2006-2011 "Prints," Art at Piecasso Pizzeria, Stowe, VT

Monotypes, Monoprints and Block Prints