Above Marina Tsaplina rinses her dyed silk in a nearby creek during her residency. Marina used local plant matter and water to create textiles for her soil puppets.
SOILS & SPIRIT
In 2023, we welcomed Marina “Heron” Tsaplina—EcoArtist, Disability Culture Activist, and Kienle Scholar in Medical Humanities—as our inaugural resident. Marina’s “Soils and Spirit” project was first developed as a 2022-23 Arts Fellow at Duke University. It includes various community events, movement workshops, and puppetry classes gathering people with diverse lineages to transform the disconnected relationship with the living world. Marina’s month-long residency was spent naturally dyeing bolts of silk with local plants—black walnut, beech leaves, buckthorn, sumac, and goldenrod. The silk was sewn into a series of “soil phrases” that act as both soft sculptures and interactive puppets and are part of a movement performance touring in 2026. Marina hosted an interactive gathering and lecture at the Whallonsburg Grange to share her process and projects with local community members.
marinatsaplina.com
@bodypoemspuppetry