Project Award 2025

Karyn Murphy, an artist with a background in science who uses art to communicate everyday aspects and interconnections with the natural world, will create a collection of large-scale book structures, using local material for an interactive gallery exhibit. These kinetic sculptural works will scale up her previous expertise/experiments in bookbinding, papermaking, weaving, calligraphy, and pigments and elevate her ideas about movement in the natural world. 

When asked what she would like the public to know, Murphy responded, “My science background is foundational to using art as a form of science communication. My goal is to highlight the everyday aspects of the natural world, the small things oft overlooked, and the interconnections that we all have with the world around us.”

(Left to right) “Book of the Moon,” 2024, “Starry Night” Cave Paper and silver ink, 2×2 inches; “Salmon & Seaweed,” 2024, Handmade seaweed paper and salmon skin, 6×6 inches; “Cockle Shell Book,” 2024, Cockle shell, Cave Paper, Momigami paper, and linen thread, 3x3x10 inches.

Watch Karyn Murphy as she goes through her piece “A Book of Tengwar Samples from the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien.” Created in 2024 with Japanese rice paper, Hahnemuhle paper, foam core, Momigami paper spine, with a covered chopstick page turner. 9.5×18 inches.