'Seeds of Abundance' - The Source

Bend artist Michele Guieu takes to heart the quote, “Beauty is everywhere, but the catastrophe is immense,” by French astrophysicist Aurelien Barrau. It’s a paradox about the stunning beauty of nature, art and life while simultaneously acknowledging that humans create situations of crisis.

“Enjoy nature. Enjoy the beauty, but be active in your community,” Guieu says. “Do something because we depend on this natural world.” That sentiment is at the core of her new exhibit at Scalehouse Collaborative for the Arts in downtown Bend titled, “Seeds of Abundance: Limits, Loss & Regeneration.”

“The title says it all for me, a sense of place, and refers to all the show being linked to this very place,” she explains. The entire exhibit is created from items found in nature, mostly at the north Bend farm, Authentique Artfarm, she shares with her husband. They sell produce grown at the farm through Central Oregon Locavore.

The art exhibit is an immersive experience for visitors. The first thing you see when walking into the gallery is a large rustic arbor constructed from stripped willow branches. Shredded bark lies on the floor as nature’s rug for visitors to step on as they walk through the arbor. Dried flowers and bundles of ornamental grass adorn the fixture, but the structure is far from complete. The public is invited to add to the display. A supply station is set up in the corner with natural materials and paper tags for users to add some inspired words. Guieu put prompts on the wall with statements such as “what we value vs. what actually sustains us” and “how can we stay grounded in a shifting world?”

“So, I want people, when they see the piece here, made only with things from the farm, that they give their comment, their idea of what it means for them to live here,” Guieu explains. The exhibit is an idea that took her a year to develop.

Visitors can create patterns using stickers that glow under black lights. Credit: Nic Moye

Another interactive space is hidden behind a black curtain in a small, dark room with black lights and walls covered with black paper. Visitors are invited to add to a growing mural of glow-in-the-dark stickers representing different shapes such as dots or plant leaves. Guieu sees it as a constellation. “The idea is really to put your mark on it.”

Guieu is originally from France where she was a painter for many years. “But for me it was difficult to align my view on ecology using paint that is basically petroleum.” She also had misgivings about the materials used to create a canvas. “I’m interested in the future, in how we are going to navigate the terrible things that are happening to our biosphere. How, as an artist, I can be aligned with that and do something.”

Treated paper has images from nature created by sun exposure. Credit: Brooklyn Wagner

Every piece in the exhibit is created from nature. A sculpture of pinecones hangs on one wall, next to branches covered with circular pieces of wood that Guieu cut and glued. Another exhibit features sun exposed coated paper with white silhouettes of plants. Another room showcases a wall of artwork created from driftwood.

The exhibit is supported by a $2,000 grant from the City of Bend’s Community Sponsorship & Grant Program, which supports local programs, services and events that promote community outreach and education related to City initiatives and goals.

All materials used in the exhibit were found in nature. Credit: Nic Moye

Scalehouse Executive Director Marley Weedman Lorish says Guieu’s work was chosen because of its interactive nature and timely seasonal elements. She says the gallery is Central Oregon’s only nonprofit with an emphasis on contemporary art.

“We view the gallery as an educational space for contemporary art, creating access and understanding but also breaking down perceived barriers of art, and contemporary art in particular can be very, very conceptual and unfriendly,” Weedman Lorish explains. “We often look for work that has interactive components, an artist that’s deeply interested in engaging with the community because we view Scalehouse as a bridge between the public and contemporary art.”

Artist Michele Guieu, left, interacts with visitors at her exhibit at Scalehouse Collaborative for the Arts. Credit: Brooklyn Wagner

Guieu is making several appearances at the exhibit to interact with the public, including a talk on Thursday, March 19 at 5:30pm.

“As an artist, I want to draw people in. I want them to experience beauty, to feel something, maybe close to joy or close to a soothing emotion, and then eventually to the sense of place,” she says.

When the exhibit is over in mid-April, it will be dismantled. Guieu will recycle some of the items and reuse others in a future art project. That experience evokes the “loss” in the exhibit’s title. “Hopefully they had a good experience. I keep that with me. I see the progress and the end is the end. The end is when the gallery closes the show and that’s the end of its life as it is and it’s fine with me…. Loss exists. We are losing the natural world.”

“Seeds of Abundance: Limits, Loss & Regeneration”
Through April 24 Wed-Sun 11am-4pm
Michele Guieu in person at exhibit
April 1-2, 8, 15-16, 22-23 2-4pm 
Scalehouse Collaborative for the Arts
550 NW Franklin Ave., Ste 138, Bend
scalehouse.org/
Free

This article appears in the Source March 19, 2026.