I’ve lived most of my life in the occupied Shawnee Territory of so called southern Illinois, and was a SIU graduate from the School of Liberal Arts- Painting, was awarded the Celine A Chu Scholarship in 1995, and was a candidate for the Rickert Ziebold awards in 1996.
Nature has always fueled my creative spirit. Working with encaustic mediums of both hot and cold wax, oil pastels, paint and mixed media; my focus in the coming years will be processing the rage, anxiety and guilt stemming from complex intersectional issues that climate crisis will impact.
I am exploring a strategy of deep adaption as I reflect on the science of climate change, the impacts to our natural world and human rights, while intentionally moving into a palliative process similar to hospice after the doctors have said there is nothing more we can do.
When I read the United Nations report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in October 2018, that stated we had less than 12 years to mitigate climate catastrophe, it confirmed the sour despair I was feeling. However, that report was soon followed by the US 4th National Climate Assessment that detailed the horrendous impacts of climate change across the regions of the US. The analyses that then followed were mind numbing— we truly have less than 18 months to stabilize the climate.
It’s not like this was a news flash, I have spent the last seven years of my life fighting to ban fracking to protect water, air and soil. I have been part of multiple organizations locally and nationally, that have fought like hell to raise awareness of the cumulative impacts of a destabilized climate to the politicians and people in power. I have spun my wheels and my efforts have been in vain as we punch the accelerator to floor and throttle ourselves over the cliff of climate crisis into bowels of biosphere collapse and ecocide.
Guilt of walking away, the despair, frustration at the entrenched system that fails to yield to the obvious symptoms of addiction to fossil fuels are all emotions I’m processing, but mostly I feel rage. A seething rage at the people in power who have buried the science and propagated false narratives that have ultimately sentenced my children to a life of hell, literally and figuratively.
I do not know what will manifest from this anger and pain. Maybe it’s escapism, maybe it’s stepping back for a new perspective and learning a new way of weathering the inevitable storms.
My art business and this website, has been designated as a "Trusted Art Seller" with The Art Storefronts Organization, which means you can shop with confidence, and know that I stand behind the quality and value of my products.
