2026 SPE Annual Conference: Catalyst for Exchange
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print this pageField Notes from the Texas Land, Sea, and Sky
Saturday, October 11 - 2:00PM to 2:45PM
IPE Building
For more than a decade, Texas and its landscape have been central to Krista Leigh Steinke's practice—from the intense light and heat of the sun, to the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, to the fragile Gulf Coast entangled with the oil industry. Working across moving image, experimental photography, and sustainable practice, her projects search for meaning in a time of environmental precarity.
In this presentation, Steinke shares several projects shaped by the Texas land, sea, and sky, and how these environments inform her methods. Drawing on sources ranging from art history and science to memory, the female perspective, and even weather reports, her work unfolds like a visual diary. Each piece reflects how the personal, social, and universal are intertwined through place and ecological experience.
At the heart of her practice is a love of experimentation, a curiosity about materials, and an ongoing interest in ecology. Photography—both still and moving—serves as a framework for unconventional, process-based techniques: pinhole cameras, found footage, and 16mm film altered by sun, bacteria, or soil. These gestures treat nature as collaborator, leaving its mark directly on the image.
The talk concludes with a preview of new work in progress, expanding into eco-friendly, sustainable, and non-toxic approaches to time-based media. Ultimately, Steinke's Field Notes invites reflection on how art can critique, respond to, and coexist with the world we inhabit—and why Texas must be part of that conversation.
speaker
Krista Leigh Steinke
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