Tilke Elkins is an artist, writer, and curator based on Kalapuya territory in so-called Oregon, focused on site-specific painting and social practice art. Tilke has worked with mineral and botanical pigments since 2007, and is the founding director of Wild Pigment Project, a collaborative initiative she established in 2019 to promote ecological balance and regenerative economies through a passion for wild pigments, their places of origin, and their cultural histories.

Tilke is a passionate educator who teaches regular courses on foraging and paint-making. She has introduced principals of wild pigment practice to diverse creative communities, including Portland Community College, the University of Oregon, WildCraft Studio School, Lewis and Clark College, the Pacific Northwest College of Art and to arts educators and their students worldwide through her online comprehensive foraging and art-material-making course, Being With Pigments. Through Ground Bright, a wild pigment subscription program, she raises monthly funds for land and cultural stewardship organizations, sending educational pigment packets to artists internationally. She publishes a regular newsletter, Pied Midden, featuring interviews with pigment practitioners, researchers and activists. Her most recent work was exhibited at form & concept gallery in Santa Fe along with the Wild Pigment Project Group Exhibition, which she curated.

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