TALKING FLOWERS
Talking Flowers is a sound installation that explores the strength of women, soft yet unyielding, beautiful yet deeply transformative, and an incredible capacity for hope.
This work honors generational investment in healing and growth, the enduring labor of love, the consistency of truth spoken in prayers and encouragement, the ways the women before me nurtured a corner of light in this world, not just for themselves, but generations to come.
THE GARDEN SHE PLANTED
The Garden She Planted is a sonic exploration of legacy—of what is handed down, carried forward, and reshaped through creation. Woven from questions of inheritance and agency, this piece reflects on the voices, traditions, and stories that live within us, asking: What creative gifts have we received? How do we choose to carry them? Where do we make space for our becoming? Throughout the process of building this work, themes of sovereignty arose as both deeply personal and inherently communal—a recognition that to create is both to honor what came before and to claim space for what is yet to bloom.
The Garden She Planted is a part of Sovereign, a show curated by Meredith Connelly at the McColl Center Spring 2025
Curated by Meredith Connelly, the exhibition creates meaningful dialogue and connection around these essential themes.
Sovereign, presented by McColl Center and Art By Meredith Connelly, with media sponsorship by Charlotte Is Creative and community partnership with Safe Alliance, is also supported by the Arts and Science Council’s Cultural Vision Grant.
HOME VIDEOS : MUSIC SESSION
HOME VIDEOS : MUSIC SESSION
HOME VIDEOS is a collection of at-home performances shot on VHS tape.
A Kovasckitz Brothers production.
GOLDEN THREADS
For Rail Trail Lights 2025, the Charlotte Center City Partners team commissioned local, public artist Meredith Connelly to concept and create the installations for Golden Threads. Meredith subcontracted 11 local artists to support the fabrication and installation of each art piece. Each artist received hands-on opportunities, training, and mentorship throughout the process to help support their professional development.
Rail Trail: Golden Threads explores South End Charlotte’s journey from an industrial and textile community to a center for art, design, and technology. This series of illuminated installations celebrates nature’s intrinsic intelligence and the human ingenuity it inspires. Through an immersive, multi-sensory experience, the project invites visitors to reflect on how early innovators observed and applied patterns and principles from the natural world, especially in weaving, community building, and sustainable practices, to shape South End’s cultural and industrial heritage.
Rail Trail Lights 2025 is presented by US Bank and Rail Trail Charlotte
Team Lead: Meredith Connelly
Team Project Managers:
Nadia Meadows
Autumn Payne
Victoria Singleton
Fabrication and Installation Team:
Trish Boyles
Hirmani Brown
Nada Esmaeel
Chloe Kaylor
Junior Gomez
Erin Peacock
Denise Sanchez
Marquia Humphries
Soundscape Artist: Emily Sage
SOUNDS OF SERENITY GARDEN
The Sounds of Serenity Garden is a musical art installation created to shine a light on the pockets of green that exist in the city.
This soundtrack is an invitation to encounter nature within city limits, it's a call to seek pockets of serenity and presence within the hustle and bustle of our busy lives. It's a reminder that there is beauty and art everywhere, if we only take the time to look.
The soundtrack played aloud on speakers throughout the park, with a QR Code to scan for a more intimate listening experience on headphones.
The soundtrack was named after Serenity Garden, a new green space in uptown Charlotte activated specifically for Charlotte Shout 2023. Charlotte SHOUT!, presented by Atrium Health and Bank of America, is an aspirational multi-week festival featuring exceptionally curated programming from around the corner and the world. Serenity Garden also contained several sculptural installations as well as “Yoga in the Park” every day throughout the festival.
Composer & Producer: Emily Sage
Watch the Sounds of Serenity Garden Documentary here.
LET YOUR HEART BE LIGHT
Sound and Installation Artist
Let Your Heart Be Light is a touch-triggered painting that brings art, music, and technology together in a quietly rebellious way, creating a piece that must be touched to be fully understood. It invites interaction and participation.
A depiction of blue skies inspired by the daydreamer and the hopeless romantic. An ode to having a soft heart and openness to love, art, beauty, and even silliness.
This project and the research required were funded by the Arts and Science Council through the FY24 Artist Support Grant.
The Sky of Bubbles is a part of Atelier Sisu’s Ephemeral Collection. Ephemera is an adjective, meaning the quality of being fleeting or vanishing quickly; impermanence.
The Sky of Bubbles are an immersive, light and sound temporary environment that aims to capture the concept of ephemerality and transience in a visual form: the bubble.
The original soundtrack was created for this experience by local composer Jason Hausman of Hot Sake Studios. (CIAF 2022)
Jason Hausman - Score & Mix
Emily Sage - Vocals
Derel Monteith - Piano
Troy Conn - Guitar
SKY OF BUBBLES
An award-winning short film that explores themes of loss and grief, created by a group of mostly strangers during the pandemic.
An intimate concert series that began with the intention to provide a listening room environment for independent artists to share their work. A welcoming space where the subtleties in the artistry could be heard and celebrated. (c. 2018-2019)