I am a mixed media painter based in New England. My work bears witness to ecological trauma through combinations of scientific data with figurative, symbolic, and archival imagery. This work considers: How does 21st century data, historical belief, and emotional response shape humanity’s complex relationship to the natural world?
In my practice, I adapt myth and pre-scientific ideas as narrative frameworks for disrupted climate and environmental systems, using archetypal figures to embody distress. I highlight the inaccessibility of technical language through hand-written fragments of scientific research. I transform digital graphics of alarming data into expressionistic symbols through gestural marks in wet and dry media. These multi-layered elements examine the emotional trauma of eco-anxieties, the physical trauma of environmental disasters, and the cognitive trauma of overwhelming information.
The American Psychological Association describes eco-anxiety as “the fear of environmental cataclysm from observing the seemingly irrevocable impact of climate change.” Acknowledgement of eco-anxieties can lead to positive action, proactive adaptation and personal resilience. My intent is to prompt connections among science, history and culture, and generate conversations about the multiple challenges that humanity, and all living entities, face.
Sharing professional resources for climate-related mental health is part of my practice.