Rebecca Vaughan

Strankinja Bread Project

(n. strankinja means stranger or foreigner in Croatian)

Sign-up to be gifted a special loaf of bread, (sign-up link HERE) baked by myself with hyper-local grain. In exchange, I ask for you to share your experience of being (or feeling like) a foreigner in our local land. Each loaf of bread is intended to honor a way for the foreign and the local to come together.

First come, first served
Only 12 loaves per week available

Featuring local grains Hard Red Winter wheat of Grain Place Foods in Marquette, Nebraska; Turkey Red from Marion Milling in Kansas City, MO and perennial Kernza grain from the Land Institute in Salina, Kansas.

Visit my Strankinja Bread Project page on IG where I post the bread that I gift, along with the stories of participants.

The Strankinja Bread Project does not charge for loaves, however the H&R Block Artspace accepts cash donations for future programming.

Gifted loaves are decorated with historic Croatian designs on their crust, intended to reference your shared experience. In addition, each loaf is wrapped inside a limited edition tea towel, which has block-printed Croatian designs that respond to your story.

Tallgrass Residency

During the Summer of 2023, I attended the Tallgrass Prairie Residency in Matfield Green, Kansas. My mission during the 10-day stay was to research hyper-local grains, bake bread with this historic agriculture of the area, and look for how I might be able to link it to my own Croatian ancestry. Specifically, the manner in which I scored my sourdough breads were meant to simulate the ancient Croatian tattoo tradition called sicanje/bocanje.

My interest in the tradition was borne of the discovery of my ancestry. Being adopted and never knowing my biological family, I learned through DNA testing that I am mostly Croatian. After research into the culture, I learned of the centuries-old tradition in which Grandmothers would tattoo their grand-daughters to protect them from being kidnapped by the invading Ottomans, as they found the markings to be unsightly. Grandmothers would hand poke lamp soot and breast milk (or honey) as the tattoo medium.

Linking this tattoo practice of bread can be seen in the manner in which I score the crusts of my breads before baking.

Hyper-Local perennial grain Kernza

This grain was used in my sourdough baking formula, obtained from local farmers and the Land Institute, a non-profit group based in Salina, which seeks to cultivate sustainable grains.

Breads baked with Turkey Red wheat, scored with Croatian protection symbols.

Turkey Red wheat is one of the oldest grains in the Kansas region, brought by the Mennonite Ukrainian farmers in the 1800s.

Historic illustration of a Croatian woman with sicanje tattoos.

Historic graphics of Croatian sicanje

Bread scoring Croatian Protection symbols before baking:

After baking

The crust shows the scoring designs inspired by Croatian protection symbols.

KC No-Knead made with leftover Seder beet soup

This is the stage in the bread production when I score it with a lame (pronounced Lahm), a very sharp razor.

KC No-Knead made with leftover Seder beet soup

Mixing it all together.

Ready for bulk fermentation, about 11 hours at 80 degrees

KC No-Knead made with leftover Seder beet soup

Half-way through baking, the lid is removed, as rising has mostly concluded, and now finished off for color and doneness.

Traditional sourdough, made with a Denver starter

The loaf with the beet soup lost its pink color, but the taste was still ah-mazing!

ARTNAUTS

I am proud to be a member of the ARTNAUTS collective, which has had exhibitions in places of contention throughout the world.
”We are now exhibiting in our home country because the United States has become a place of contention. The coronavirus and the present situation in race relations makes it imperative for the ARTNAUTS to exhibit work that helps us address these issues.” -Dr. George Rivera

Member and Treasurer of ARTNAUTS

The Artnauts is an artist collective devoted to art for social change. Site-specific small works are produced for themed group exhibitions all over the world, in places of contention, such as Bosnia, the DMZ of Korea, Cambodia, Uganda, Northern Ireland and Colombia.

UPCOMING May-June 2024

I am presently co-curating, with artist and fellow Artnaut Rian Kerrane, the exhibition Thus Far, showing in Northern Ireland at Platform Arts in Belfast, and the Museum of Free Derry in Derry/Londonderry.

Lilium Bosniacum, Sarajevo Winter Arts Festival, 2023

A social practice project, in collaboration with fellow Artnaut Trine Bumiller, in which hand-painted badges of the Bosnian state flower were pinned on to the collars and lapels of visitors of the Festival. The Bosnian lily is a symbol of the perseverance of the Balkan people.

Lilium Bosniacum, Sarajevo Winter Arts Festival, 2023

details shots of a few of the painted badges

Foundling's Quilt

2024, Artnauts’ exhibition in Sarajevo for the 40th Winter Arts Festival

gouache and graphite on paper, 8-1/2 x 11”

Wherever the Artnauts exhibit, our 50+ members each send one 8-1/2 x 11” artwork with our exhibit’s curator. This ensures that all work can be sent in the carry-on luggage of the curator, and make it without customs/border issues preventing the exhibition from opening on-time.

The Crib

This work was created for the 2023 Sarajevo 39th Winter Arts Festival. Gouache and ink on paper, 8-1/2 x 11”

Rainforest Deforest

This work was created for the 2022 Museum of Peace and Reconciliation in Bogota, Columbia. Gouache and ink on paper, 8-1/2 x 11”

detail of Rainforest Deforest

Nature/Nurture

This work was created for the 2022 Artnaut exhibition at the Dar Al-Kalima University in Bethlehem, Palestine. Gouache and ink on paper, 8-1/2 x 11”

Invisible Child

This work was created for the 2022 Artnaut exhibition at the 38th Winter Arts Festival in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzigovina. Gouache and ink on paper, 8-1/2 x 11”

Foundling Textile STOP Sign #1

All works shown here are in the ARTNAUTS 25th Anniversary exhibition Uncanny at Siedel City, Boulder, CO

2022
sign-painter’s enamel on foamed PVC
72 x 32 x 4”

The Foundling textile series are reproductions of 18th C. textiles from the Foundling Museum, left by someone who relinquished a child. Textile tokens were meant to identify the child if they wanted to claim them years later.

In 18th century London, a person who relinquished a child at the Foundling Hospital, was asked to leave the child with a matching textile swatch. When the intake paperwork was completed at the time of relinquishment, they were asked to leave this “textile token.” The textile token would then wait for the eventual day that the person who relinquished the child would be in a better future position to reclaim the youth. If this was the case, they were required to produce their matching piece years later as sole evidence of the connection between these two human souls.

Foundling Textile STOP Sign #2

2022
sign-painter’s enamel on foamed PVC
72 x 32 x 4”

Foundling Textile STOP Sign #3

2022
sign-painter’s enamel on foamed PVC
72 x 32 x 4”

MOST RECENT PAINTINGS

The Foundling's Comfort

Solo Show at the University of Minnesota, Morris, MN
2024, gouache and graphite on linen, 84 x 60”

detail, The Foundling's Comfort

Breakthroughs Group exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver

My work was selected to appear on the entryway banners.

Breakthroughs Group exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver

My work was selected to appear on the entryway banners.

Interior shot of work exhibited in Breakthroughs Group exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver

Foundling No. 137, the accompanying note named the child _______

2023, gouache, ink and graphite on paper, 18 x 24”

Foundling No. 11877, the child was feral

2023, gouache, ink and graphite on paper, 18 x 24”

Foundling No. 2468, the name is ________

2023, gouache, ink and graphite on paper, 18 x 24”
work exhibited in Breakthroughs Group exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver

Foundling No. 3540, an expensive flowered dress silk

2023, gouache, ink and graphite on paper, 18 x 24”

Foundling No. 166, the archives of the crib

2023, gouache, ink and graphite on paper, 18 x 24”

Foundling No. 208, marks and clothing of a _______ child

2023, gouache, ink and graphite on paper, 18 x 24”

Foundling No. 12924, a brood parasite

2023, gouache, ink and graphite on paper, 18 x 24”

Foundling No. 13414, the clutch was a burden

2023, gouache, ink and graphite on paper, 18 x 24”

Foundling No. 12843, a ribbon cockade left with _______ child

2023, gouache, ink and graphite on paper, 18 x 24”

Adoptive Mother #1

2023, gouache, ink and graphite on paper, 22 x 30”

Adoptive Mother #2

2023, gouache, ink and graphite on paper, 22 x 30”

Brood Parasite #1

2023, gouache, ink and graphite on paper, 22 x 30”

Brood Parasite #2

2023, gouache, ink and graphite on paper, 22 x 30”

Clutches

2023, gouache, ink and graphite on paper, 22 x 30”

Foundling Flight #1

2023, gouache, ink and graphite on paper, 22 x 30”

Foundling Flight #2

2023, gouache, ink and graphite on paper, 22 x 30”

Nest #1

2023, gouache, ink and graphite on paper, 22 x 30”

Nest #2

2023, gouache, ink and graphite on paper, 22 x 30”

Foundling Quilt #2

2023, gouache, ink and graphite on paper, 18 x 24”

Foundling Quilt #1

2023, gouache, ink and graphite on paper, 18 x 24”

The Storm was Predicted

Solo Show at the 39th Winter Arts Festival in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzigovina
2023, gouache, ink and graphite on muslin, 36 x 48”

Unknown Child

Solo Show at the 39th Winter Arts Festival in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzigovina
2023, gouache, ink and graphite on muslin, 36 x 48”

Tradition was a Burden

Solo Show at the 39th Winter Arts Festival in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzigovina
2023, gouache, ink and graphite on muslin, 24 x 36”

Small Comfort

Solo Show at the 39th Winter Arts Festival in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzigovina
2023, gouache, ink and graphite on muslin, 24 x 36”

The Child's Name was Later Changed

Solo Show at the 39th Winter Arts Festival in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzigovina
2023, gouache, ink and graphite on muslin, 36 x 48”

The Clutch was a Burden

Solo Show at the 39th Winter Arts Festival in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzigovina
2023, gouache, ink and graphite on muslin, 36 x 48”

The Marks and Clothing of the Child

Solo Show at the 39th Winter Arts Festival in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzigovina
2023, gouache, ink and graphite on muslin, 36 x 48”

Foundling Textiles

gouache on panel or maps, 2020

Foundling textile token works are reproductions of 18th C. textiles from the Foundling Museum, left by someone who relinquished a child. Textile tokens were meant to identify the child if they wanted to claim them years later.

A foundling is a child who has been abandoned by their parents or guardians, whether through hardship or conflict, and cared for by another. In 18th century London, a person who relinquished a child at the Foundling Hospital, was asked to leave the child with a fragile remnant of hope to connect later on. When a person completed the intake paperwork for the child at the time of relinquishment, they were asked to leave a “textile token” which was a matching swatch of fabric. The textile token would then be placed in the hospital archives, in hopes for the eventual day that the person who relinquished the child would be in a better future position to reclaim the youth. If this was the case, they were required to produce their matching piece years later as sole evidence of the connection between these two human souls.

Not See Me Works Into Her

2018-19; taxidermy bear blank, 20 foot extension ladder, rotating emergency beacon lights, dc motors, AM radio antennae, knitting needles, bass wood, motion sensors and the golden chalice vine (a plant which secretes a pheromone that causes humans to create the same neurotransmitters that we create when we are madly in love).
University of Denver Vicki Mhyren Gallery 2019
Redline Contemporary Art Center 2018

photography by Wes Magyar

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Lure, 2001-present

Lure is inspired by the role of pheromones, particularly in the rancher’s practice of skinning a stillborn calf to drape its hide on an orphan calf. The stillborn’s mother, smelling her progeny’s scent, subsequently permits the orphan to nurse from her. Lure sends out my scent as a signal in a real and metaphorical effort to attract my birth mother, whom I have never met. By distributing and networking my scent to and with numerous women my age, whom I call satellites, I challenge the physical and emotional boundaries of the singular self as well as concepts of motherhood and daughterhood.

Not Exactly Love Garden

2012; MDF, UV bulbs, lighting, scaffold and Lollipop Crabapple Tree

photography by Wes Magyar

I Made a Fire, Now Let me Watch it Burn

2019; mixed media series of sculptures featuring objects for the hand (spoons, canes, axe handles, etc), LED lights and hand-carved bass wood

photography by Wes Magyar

Ladders

photography by Wes Magyar

Whippersnapper

2013; marquee lights, 6 ft. stepladder
Ironic Object Exhibition, curated by Lanny DeVuono for Redline, Denver, CO
18" wide x 6' tall x 14" deep

Whippersnapper

Ham

2012; silver lame', 6 ft step ladder
Stuffed Exhibition, curated by Amber Cobb for Laundry on Lawrence, Denver, CO
26" wide x 6' tall x 12" deep

A FEATHER FROM FREUD'S PILLOW

2011; Aunt Nancy's prom skirt, attic ladder

7' wide x 4' tall x 3' deep

Corpse Eater

2011; silver lame', metal, resin, platform ladder
8' wide x 4' tall x 3' deep

Strut

Collaborative work with Theresa Anderson
2010; table lamp, foam, pantyhose, ladder stabilizer
4-1/2' wide x 5' tall x 18" deep

My Father's Model Train

All works shown here contain sections of my deceased father's model train set, MDF, marquee lights

photography by Wes Magyar

My Father's Model, 2013

Invisible Boundaries Exhibition, curated by Carmen Winant for Redline, Denver, CO
4' wide x 4' tall x 2-1/2' deep

Daughter's Model

2013

Heart Holster

2014

Physical Tracking

2013

Quick Like a Bunny

2014

Track Plans

2014

The History of Enchantment and the Dark Side of the Heart

2017; MDF, paint, marquee lights, bicycle parts, model train parts, mixed media

This series of elaborately scrolled, lighted sculptural objects seek to have a conversation with and claim territory over experiences from my youth; spending summers with out-of-state extended family, inspirational wall hangings and my father’s built-in elaborate train set. These objects have become dense, meaning-laden relics of my naive childhood understanding of identity. This installation is an investigation into both light-hearted and challenging representations of my experience of childhood and culminating adult character.

photography by Wes Magyar

DETAIL, The History of Enchantment and the Dark Side of the Heart

Florid and Liminal

Florid and Liminal, 2012; Carl W. Illig's paintings
Material Engagements Exhibition, curated by Harmony Hammond for Redline, Denver, CO
9' wide x 3' tall x 1" deep

photography by Wes Magyar

Baroque and Perverse

2012; Carl W. Illig's painting, resin, foam
30" wide x 38" tall x 2" deep

photography by Wes Magyar

Baroque and Perverse #3

Baroque and Perverse #1

Baroque and Perverse #2

Medallions

MDF, marquee lights, metal

photography by Wes Magyar

2011; Be a Cloud, Not a Grid Exhibition, curated by Theresa Anderson for Vertigo Gallery, Denver, CO
each piece 4' wide x 2' tall x 6" deep

Castle Marne installation

2016; curated by Cortney Stell for Doors Open Denver
each piece 4' wide x 2' tall x 6" deep

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Medallion #3

2017; MDF, paint, marquee lights, made for Redline’s EPIC Gala fundraiser

Woolfe Mommy, Psychopomp and Tricky Snarky Narrow

Woolfe Mommy, Psychopomp and Tricky Snarky Narrow, 2012; mixed media
collaboration with Theresa Anderson and Jennifer Jeannelle
Notes on Feeling Exhibition, curated by Elissa Auther for Redline, Denver, CO
dimensions variable

photography by Wes Magyar

Sentinels

Collaboration with Jennifer Pettus
Pink Progression at the Arvada Center for the Arts
taxidermy blanks, windmill beacon base, MDF, gouache, yarn, thread, mixed media
2020

Created with a common interest in the tension created when the beautiful and grotesque are combined. Using bobcat blanks in aggressive poses, we gave them new “skins” of embroidery, yarn, hand-carved basswood objects, found fabric and various other found materials. In mounting them on a windmill, they become larger-than-life, amplified charms emitting desire, intimacy, deformity, and repulsion.

Personal Locator Beacon

2010; Emmanuel Gallery, Denver, CO
Colorado's oldest standing church-turned gallery was converted into a personal locator beacon. Upon entrance, viewers were greeted by a 20 foot banner proclaiming "Open to Love." Their further movement into the space triggered a wave of fans and rotating emergency beacon lights.
Each fan blew the scent of the Golden Chalice Vine towards visitors, a plant known to release a pheromone, which in humans, causes us to create the same neurotransmitters that we do when we are madly in love.
Ornate Rococo ceiling medallions were teamed with DC motors and industrial light bulb cages; hand-crocheted florets adorned motion sensors and exposed electric wires; 16-foot extension ladders were covered in shimmery pink fabric to create internal buttresses, leading the viewers' eye to 20 foot high gothic windows, where rotating beacon lights sent the message of love to the outside world.

Open to Love banner, as seen in Redline’s entry space, 2011

Arts Administration + Non-Profit

Works shown here are examples of my time in arts non-profit institutions, where I supervised the culmination of exhibitions and large-scale collaborations between professional artists and civically engaged youth.

2018 Fall Resident Artist Alex Branch

While in residence at PlatteForum, Resident Artist Alex Branch has been working with PlatteForum’s own high school ArtLab interns to create an ensemble of sound sculptures. Looking to create a link between the crutch as a medical device and musical instruments as tools for rehabilitation, the title Calibration references the ability to tune a body as well as a musical instrument.

detail of musical instruments created with medical gear by 2018 Fall Resident Artist Alex Branch and high school ArtLab Interns

2019 Resident Artist Jessical Forrestal

Mechanical Voids, during the Summer 2019, was the culmination of a residency with artist Jessica Forrestal, which paired the artist with high school interns to create a mural/installation, which sought to address American consumer culture, mass production, consumption, and disposal of objects that are meant to promise functionality and life improvement.

2019 Spring Resident Artist Katy Batsel

Another World is Possible; Be the Monster and Code Switch When Gritty the Philadelphia Flyer’s bright orange ice hockey mascot was co-opted by the Antifa movement, Denver-based fiber and performance artist Katy Batsel took inspiration to build on her existing roster of monster puppets to create a queer identity movement of her own. Building on the existing history of puppets to create protest art, Katy worked with PlatteForum’s own ArtLab interns to coach them in the creation of their own monsters.

detail exhibition of 2019 Spring Resident Artist Katy Batsel and ArtLab Interns

2016 Fall Resident Artist Sarah Gerard

Dear Mayor Hancock, What Are You Going to Do? featured interviews of individuals experiencing homelessness in Denver conducted by Gerard and her group of high school students. Aimed at catalyzing tangible policy changes to help Denver residents experiencing homelessness find the housing and support that they need to live, the exhibition features news zines for sale, audio and video portraits, and an installation filled with artifacts from the streets.

detail, exhibition with 2016 Fall Resident Artist Sarah Gerard and Mi Casa North HS students

2019 Spring Resident Artist Maria Molteni

During her seven-week residency, Molteni presented on many overlapping social justice and art historical movements, particularly the Post-war and Cold-war eras when Abstract Expressionism re-centered the focus of art world from Europe to the United States. Staging both individualized and collective abstract drawing/painting exercises (named by Maria and the interns “AB Exorcism!”), the ArtLab interns practiced ecstatic painting processes that engaged the whole space, inside a fabric-lined action painting arena for interns to freely test painting techniques and original fabricated tools.

detail, exhibition of 2019 Spring Resident Artist Maria Molteni and high school ArtLab interns

2016 Fall Resident Artist Heejin Jang

Love Tooth was a multimedia project with Resident Artist Heejin Jang, in collaboration with students from Youth on Record and PlatteForum’s own ArtLab interns. The title Love Tooth (sarangni in Korean) correlates to the American term for wisdom tooth, named as such to reference the time in one’s coming of age when one learns the pain that love can bring. Artist Heejin Jang, having worked on a series of sound capture workshops, references this notion of the wisdom tooth as a symbol of those young creatives who are experiencing love, pain, trouble, curiosity, failure, and mistake in their lives. Love Tooth consists of experimental video, mural work, and sound installation.

detail, exhibition by 2016 Fall Resident Artist Heejin Jang and students from Youth on Record

2018 Summer Resident Artist Mackenzie Browning

PROTOTYPE PEACE took the opposite direction of the proposed border wall designs near San Diego, California. Those proposed barriers embody aggression, hatred and a sense of cultural superiority which plagues this country. Installation artist Mackenzie Browning and the ArtLab interns, explore and create “obstacles” which preach love, unity, and peacekeeping – not hate.

2017 Summer Resident Artist Kyle Peets

THE BIG GAME was a collaborative performance created from a fictional premise: it’s the year 2117 and the world has all but been destroyed by capitalist-fed greed and violence. Kyle Peets and the ArtLab interns belong to a group of activists who have recently discovered an underground repository of athletic gear as well as a tattered book on the history of sports. Obligated by a sense of duty to the new world, this team re-introduces their findings to our frail culture by inventing a new sport. In this new sport, it is the activist-athletes who work to take a stand against inequality and oppression.

Previous Works

Occasion

2000; ILK at Pirate Gallery, Denver, CO
Occasion intended to strip-away those automatic behaviors of gift exchange, revealing ways in which we uphold our connections in a very coded manner. A series of verbal requests and orders was given as a requirement to receive my gift as I stated, “please do not thank me for the gift, wait until you get home to open it and never discuss the item inside.” Audience members encountered their own habitual and scripted responses to gift transaction through my unexpected and restructured social custom. As well, I created a dispersal of objects that spread throughout the community. When audience members opened the gifts, they found that the gift I gave were every gift that has ever been given to me, and an addressed, stamped and unsealed ‘thank you’ card written to the original giver of that gift. This allowed for the new recipient to understand the significance of the object and send the ‘thank you’ to the original giver. Consequently, audience members are offered the chance to widen the space of the gift sentiment