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House as leaky vessel
Water Television
Entry/Exit for bodies in motion
slow walk with you (while the planet spins)
Millenia Bench

Illustration
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drawing, walking, sensing

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Mara Menahan (b. Missoula, Montana)
interdisciplinary artist, illustrator and educator



As an artist, I aim to disrupt human/nature binary thinking. Working with watery media, glass, fabric, and video projection, I use layers and translucency to implicate the observer in what is observed, creating low-tech, poetic interfaces that blur boundaries between analog and digital, feral and domestic, the environment and our bodies.  
As an illustrator, I create images slowly, by hand, informed by my own sensory participation in the world. With over a decade experience illustrating plants for the U.S. Botanic Garden, I specialize in botanical and scientific imagery, sequential narratives, gifs and public signage. I am especially concerned with documenting threatened lifeforms, the impacts of extractive industry, and animating change over time.

Select Exhibitions:
2025 Bloedel Reserve: 10 Years of Creative Residencies, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, WA
2024 Graduate Thesis Show, RI Convention Center, Providence, RI
2024 Arriving at the Exit, Sol Koffler Gallery, Providence, RI
2024 Viewing Velocities, Ladd Observatory, Providence, RI
2023 Grounded and Connected, Sol Koffler Gallery, Providence, RI
2023 Slow walk for you (while the planet spins), Performance at Tillinghast Marsh, Barrington, RI  
2023 Show Don’t Tell, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
2022 ABSURD DINNER PARTY, Performance with Claire Alrich, Brookland home, Washington, D.C. 2021 Landscape Portraits: Color Studies from Southeast Alaska, Solo show, Rhizome, Washington, D.C.
2021 Fieldwork, Group Show, Dance Place, Washington D.C., Online
2017 Landscape Drawings, Solo Exhibit, Bloedel Reserve, Bainbridge Island,WA
2017 SHED SHOW, Bathtub Republic, Washington D.C.
2016 Fieldwork, Group Show, Dance Place, Washington, D.C.

Select Clients:
United States Botanic Garden
Golden Triangle Business District
Wild Confluence Media
Bikepacking.com
Montana Audubon

Teaching Experience:
Wild Rockies Field Institute (University of Montana)
Rhode Island School of Design 
Wilderness Institute (University of Montana)

Workshops:
Brown University
Rhode Island School of Design
Wilderness Leadership Experience for Rhodes Scholars 
RISD Museum
United States Botanic Garden
Tenekee Springs Public Library
Bainbridge Artisan Network

Residencies:
Togiak National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska
Salmon House Creative Residency, Tenekee Springs, Alaska
Bloedel Reserve, Bainbridge Island, Washington

Honors:
RISD Fellowship, funding for 2 year MFA degree  
Bunyan Velo Expedition Fund Grant 2,000 mi cycling/botanical illustration project, Baja California, Mexico
Botanical Artists for Environment and Education Individual Grant, U.S. Botanic Garden, Washington, D.C.
Truman Scholar, National congressional scholarship for graduate school
Udall Scholar, National congressional scholarship for environmental work

Education:
MFA Rhode Island School of Design 2024 | BA Environmental Studies, BS Geography, University of Montana 2015