Passing Through

Dan Pillers was my studio mate while we were at the San Francisco Art Institute and the first artist in residence at the mill. Back in California we, along with my husband, Mike O’Shea, a printmaker and painter, decided to collaborate for a show at The Works in San Jose. While doing research on the space, we discovered that it had been one of the oldest flour mills on the west coast. 

        From a mill in France to a mill in California we decided to replicate all the elements of making flour in the space. We planted wheat in the entry, which grew over the course of the show. We made a 20-foot cyanotype waterfall on hand-cast kozo fiber, a massive grater, several mill stones of hand-cast paper, attached to disco motors so they’d turn slowly. We piled up hills of grain, and even made a whole wall into a series of rat traps, for the inevitable guests in a mill. We recorded the sound of the mill in France and played it on a continuous loop in San Jose.