Alaskan artist Mavis Muller said she would like to thank the people of Port Townsend who did yard work this week.

“What they dropped off made me smile,” said Muller of the “dreamiest” materials – grass, willow, cottonwood – she gathered from her one-stop shopping trip to the city’s composting facility.

Muller is using the materials she gathered to create a short-lived woven sculpture. At sundown on Saturday, the installation is to be ignited by torch and burned as a performance of fire art, she said.

“The final releasing through fire symbolizes something different for everyone,” Muller said.

ENGAGING COMMUNITY

Muller calls herself an “artivist” – the merging of artist and activist. She’s been an artivist for more than 30 years, she said.

“It has been my life work to use my art form of basketry and storytelling and photography and interactive art – all of these ways in which I’m able to share my gift and talent with the world, as a way to give voice to the natural world.”

Thirteen years ago, Muller began her Burning Basket Project in her hometown of Homer, Alaska, a project that let her leave the solitary artist studio and journey into the community to inspire public participation.

Since then, Muller has brought her collaborative project to other communities across the country.

The sculptures both help to build a sense of community and empower individuals, Muller said.

Often, people involved with the project are ones who don’t identify as artists, Muller said, but after they’ve worked on the basket, they “walk away thinking, ‘Oh, I’m an artist,’” Muller said of the hands-on and intuitive work.

PART OF A CYCLE

Muller said the impromptu nature of the interactive art “brings the magic out in people.”

In both art and life, Muller said, the notion of impermanence “heightens people’s awareness and brings us into the present moment.”

Muller wonders if people would treasure the process of collaborating on the sculpture in the same way if they knew it would end up somewhere in the woods.

“All things are impermanent,” said Muller, and the creation and destruction of art is a celebration of the cycle of life. “We are part of nature, and there are good lessons for us, as humans, to see ourselves as part of that cycle.”

Each individual who has been involved in the process experiences something different, said Muller, who said that often the burning can also be a way to remember departed loved ones, to release burdens of the heart or to celebrate gratitude.

What does the process mean for Muller? The artist is hesitant to say.

“If I give you my reason, I may be robbing you of the opportunity to understand on own terms,” Muller said.

“I sometimes jokingly like to say we burn it so we can do it again.”

Ultimately, it will mean something different for everyone, she said. “I encourage people to really broaden the panorama of the purpose of this kind of art.”

WEAVING WATERSHEDS

Titled “Rising Times – Basket of Courage & Connection,” the 6-foot-tall basket Muller is building in Port Townsend is part of her 2016 Burning Basket tour called “Weaving Watersheds.”

The tour celebrates the waterways that connect communities, Muller said, and recognizes the salmon that sustain us.

Muller started in the northern interior of Alaska in April, then made her way down to the southeast region of the state.

From there, Muller put her feelers out to Port Townsend, connected to Alaska through the network of borderless watersheds.

She said she was welcomed into the community. “Locals here were intrigued and delighted to allow me to offer this gift to your community.”

Resident Karolina Anderson provided workspace and lodging for Muller at Port Townsend’s RoseWind Common House, and is helping to coordinate the event.

“The theme of her basket just feels like it fits so well with what a lot of the people in the community are experiencing – both with Standing Rock and the political climate,” said Anderson, whose been involved with Standing Rock locally and recently helped coordinate a fundraising event at the Palindrome.

“A lot of people are feeling a call to action, and also a desire to focus on what we can create here as a community,” Anderson said.

The basket will begin its interactive mission Saturday, Dec. 17 at the Port Townsend Farmers Market, Muller said, when people can stop by and tie a ribbon on it in solidarity for the restoration and protection of water bodies. The next day, the piece will be installed at 2 p.m. at the field below the RoseWind Common House, 3131 Hains St., and will be burned at sundown, Muller said.

“I’m just excited that she’s here,” said Anderson, “and I think it’s such a beautiful project.”