Artist Statement
Ghost printed found objects and plants, fugitive natural inks—alive—shifting over time, the sound of the brook recounting its story, the inky line searching for answers. Through materiality and mark making, my work layers these traces and asks the viewer to immerse themselves in difficult questions about our historical, social, and ecological relationship to land. My interdisciplinary field work, research, and material explorations make visible, and deconstruct, the lineage of colonial thinking that positions us as “owners” of the land. By engaging the senses and inviting in more-than-human collaborators, I underline a simple and inherent truth: We all belong to the earth.
My mapping process is a core component of my conceptual framework. It counters the usage of maps as a military, surveying, and land-grabbing tool by engaging the five senses. I sit on the ground and, assuming synesthesia, document the sights, sounds, tastes, feelings, smells, and presences of the place. My physical body merges momentarily with the world around me. The act of being still counteracts our human-centric and capitalistic worldview; the act of noticing cultivates an ecologically intertwined future. Using a combination of installation, audio, printmaking, and drawing, my work presents this truth—we know so much, and we know so little.
Brooke Toczylowski is an artist, educator, and activist. Her work combines art-based research and public practice. Supported by a 2022 and 2024 Artists Respond Grant from the Connecticut Office of the Arts, her social practice engages the public in considering their relationship to land. In 2022 she was an artist-in-residence with root2RISE, a local group advocating culturally relevant outdoor education. She has been a long-term printmaking resident at the Kala Art Institute, in Berkeley, CA. From 2004-06, Brooke lived in Latin America; in Venezuela she led arts-workshops in schools, and in Guatemala she collaborated with the World Conservation Union, through the Creative Action Institute.
Brooke has 20+ years in education—as a teacher, curriculum coach, facilitator, and leader. She currently works as a consultant to strategically support non-profits and schools. She is co-founder and the former Executive Director of Agency by Design Oakland, in Oakland, CA, which implements equity and maker-centered learning, and which grew out of collaborative research with Project Zero at Harvard. Brooke also worked at Oakland International High School, an alternative school serving newcomer students. Before that she was a teaching artist with Urban Arts Partnership in New York City. During the pandemic Brooke moved back to Connecticut, where she grew up. She lives with her husband and two kids. She holds a BA in Studio Art and American Studies from Williams College, a teaching credential from San Francisco State University, and is a 2025 MFA candidate at Clark University.