I choose to convey the beauty, as opposed to the devastation. Shocking imagery of climate change crises effectively gains our attention, but unfortunately leaves us feeling helpless, overwhelmed and disengaged. If you can experience the sublimity of these landscapes though, perhaps you will be inspired and empowered to protect and preserve them. Behavioral psychology tells us that we take action and make decisions based on emotion above all else. Studies have shown that art can impact our emotions more effectively than a scary news report. Experts predict ice-free Arctic summers as early as 2020. Sea levels are likely to rise between two and seven feet by century s end. These are frightening projections for the oceans and humanity, yet most of us aren t doing anything to solve the crisis. Climate change is often understood as very distant to everyday experience across both time and space. By creating art that is available to be consumed and understood by the public, climate change is brought into our lives, making the issue relevant.

Art conjures up emotions because the process of viewing art involves a direct consumption of the object represented, rather than the consumption of descriptive words or language attempting to explain an idea or object. So when I make drawings, I m attempting to go beyond language. Beyond words like glacier or climate change. I m trying to create images that are overflowing with information and details that draw you deep into a place like the icy Antarctic Peninsula at dusk or down to the low lying islands of the Maldives. I hope that experience illuminates scientists warnings with a more accessible medium, one that moves us in a way that statistics may not.

BEYOND WORDS

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