Climate Women
This “Climate Women” series is mainly for myself to learn and be inspired by women climate leaders while simultaneously getting back to a regular oil painting practice. I started this series with several authors in the book All We Can Save, which is part of a larger All We Can Save Project, but then I expanded to women I know personally and/or am inspired by through other climate efforts beyond the book. Painting these women while listening to their voices on podcasts and TED Talks has become a meditation and learning practice for me. As I seek to embody intersections of art, feminism, climate activism, and Earth and space science, I find strength, motivation, and hope in their power and wisdom.
I believe that healing the climate is connected with healing ourselves, which includes listening to our creativity and the small seeds of yearning we have. Listening, learning, encouraging each other in community. Even though I haven’t met most of these women personally, I feel in community with them. I want to grow from the wisdom they provide, I want to meditate on their words and feel affected by them. And the process of painting helps me do that. I have checked with each woman to receive permission to post these paintings. There are some women I painted that I didn't hear back from, and some that did not grant me permission to share, so I keep those private. I hope everyone who sees this continues to seek inspiration from women and non-binary climate activists.
I believe all of these women are showing up the way I feel called to show up, living into the calling to be and become in this moment, to be fully alive on this Earth and in this Universe. Some of these women are scientists, some artists, and journalists. Some of the essays by Indigenous women have most affected me. I mourn how late I am arriving to this perspective, how much I didn’t inherit from my culture – wisdom, respect, connection, and love. Too often I am driven by the ethos of efficiency, productivity, ignoring or pretending like I don’t have needs or emotions or a spirit that needs to be nurtured. Stopping the grind to do these paintings is my own little resistance, my own commitment to my own healing of my mind, body, and spirit to reconnect with the pulse of this world, my listening to those whose voices need to be heard, amplified, and echoed throughout the world.
On my good days, I can point to the climate actions I have taken and feel that I can count myself among these women. My perspective of humanity, place and time is a perspective I cherish, and that I believe is amplified by my work as an astronomy educator. Pondering deep time and vast space is common for astronomers. This perspective has only amplified my love of Earth and Earthlings, how amazing we are for being here. Carl Sagan’s quote, “we are a way for the Universe to know itself” captures this. It also keeps me connected to something bigger than us on Earth. It makes me feel better – whatever happens with the climate and Earthlings in the future, nothing will change the validity of this quote.
Janine Benyus
All We Can Save Chapter: “Reciprocity” - Benyus reflects on how, during her training in natural resource management, the dominant ecological thinking on tree growth focused on competition and domination, but Benyus noticed, and the science has since backed up, that cooperation and collaboration actually do a much better job of explaining how plant ecosystems work. I love this, and I see how this can apply to my training in physics. More often than not, I felt the strain of individualism in trying to prove myself in my classes, and it wore me down. The times I've been in community, especially with women, I have found more thriving, inspiration, and curiosity that feels more in line with how science is actually supposed to work.
Image Source - I wanted to amplify the presence of the trees from the reference image, and bring them from the background into the foreground, weaving around Benyus and indicating reciprocity.
Learn more from the Biomimicry Institute.
Xiye Bastida
All We Can Save Chapter: “Calling In” -- Xiye Bastida is a powerful leader in the youth climate movement. She was raised with roots in the Indigenous Mexican Otomi people. I love that the editors of All We Can Save chose to feature Bastida’s contribution first in the anthology. It sets the stage for a rising energy coming with the next generation, a generation that won’t stand for corruption and platitudes. In reading and listening to Bastida’s words, I am impressed by her passion and poise, which has both a calmness and urgency about it, which I think is captured in this image. I wish I had had the wherewithal and courage to engage in climate change when I was younger, but I’m here now. Better late than never.
Audio References: Xiye Bastida’s TED Talks
Learn more about Bastida at her website: www.xiyebeara.com
Favianna Rodriguez
All We Can Save Chapter: “Harnessing Cultural Power”
Favianna's Website: https://favianna.com/
I liked the graphic background of the Grist reference image and wanted to replicate that in the painting. Rodriguez is an artist herself, and I tried to keep this colorful and expressive feel in my painting. While painting, I listened to the Latina to Latina podcast episode: “Pleasure is Political” and Forever 35 interview with Rodriguez (starts around the 24min mark). I also started following Rodriguez on Instagram to get a sense of her art, which is also very graphic. On her website, I noticed she write passionately about each piece and what inspired her, often with themes of healing ourselves and our climate. These narratives helped me to connect to the artwork more and inspired me to write about my own thinking and emotional connection to my art.
Amanda Sturgeon
All We Can Save Chapter: “Buildings Designed for Life”
Amanda Sturgeon's Website: https://amandasturgeon.com.au/
Built By Nature: https://builtbn.org/
I appreciate Sturgeon’s connection between building design and climate change as being more than about efficiency and cost saving. She says the “root cause of our energy addiction [is] separation from nature,” and that biophilic design “is an essential opportunity to change our relationship to one another and to all of life on Earth.”
I read this chapter as I sat outside in my backyard in a shady patch from a tree, with my dog investigating all the smells (and barking at noises to try and protect me). I was working inside my home office earlier. It’s also cozy, with a colorful wallpaper, pink couch, plants, and artwork that inspires me. But the air conditioner is running. We have a huge south facing roof but no solar panels. I hope Sturgeon is right that, “the buildings of the future will remove the line between inside and outside, and zero carbon will be the norm rather than the exception.” I would love to feel that flow between my inside office and my backyard. I am so ready for this transition!
Picture reference from TEDMED and Audio Reference from TEDMED
Marge Piercy
All We Can Save Chapter: “To Be Of Use” -- A poem giving love to the people and things that do what they are called to do. I underlined “The work of the world is common as mud.” and the last 2 lines: “The pitcher cries for water to carry / and a person for work that is real.” I feel that. “Real” is the right word. I want to be able to engage in the climate crisis in ways that feel real.
Image Reference: Marge Piercy (Photo Ira Wood) via The Provincetown Independent
Audio Reference: Marge Piercy | Tiferet Talk with Melissa Studdard: During this interview, Piercy talks about having more freedom to write (and less financial security) since she left academia. I feel that about painting and all the other things I want/need time for in my life that always felt like they were too distant when I was a professor.
Piercy's Website: https://margepiercy.com/
Sherri Mitchell -Weh’na Ha’mu Kwasset
All We Can Save Chapter: “Indigenous Prophecy and Mother Earth." I read this chapter almost a year ago and it has stuck with me since. Mitchell articulates the "ecological necessity" of valuing and learning from Indigenous wisdom, protecting Indigenous rights, and amplifying Indigenous voices. She speaks of living according to "Sacred Instructions" and mending human beings' relationship with life. I was most struck learning about the 1877 prophecy of Crazy Horse, which said there would be a time when, "the young white ones will come to those of my people and ask for this wisdom," and the Seven Fires Anishanaabe prophecy that, "if the new people learned to trust the ways of the circle and trained themselves to hear their inner voice, wisdom would return to them in waking and sleeping dreams." This reminds me of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s writing in Braiding Sweetgrass about how "becoming Indigenous to a place means living as if your children's future mattered, to take care of the land as if our lives, both material and spiritual, depended on it." I hold this with me during my regular walking in the woods with my dog, Daphne. I try to notice. I watch the trees and learn how they sway. I see the leaves waving to me. I touch the ground beneath my feet. And this has been incredibly healing for my spirit. Anytime I am lost and confused, the woods hold me. I didn't have this when I was younger; it's something I've learned as an adult from Indigenous leaders. I can see how much more I need to learn, but that doesn't feel overwhelming, it feels hopeful.
After painting Mitchell and starting to follow her, I was also inspired to participate in Emergence Magazine's Seeds of Radical Renewal (abridged) leadership course, for which she served as a guest teacher, and where I could deepen my learning from her. I will continue to read and listen to her words moving forward.
Mitchell's website: https://sacredinstructions.life/; includes a link to purchase her newest book, Sacred Instructions.
Image Reference Source: Hurry Slowly
Audio Reference: Love (and revolution) Radio episode “Sacred Instruction: Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change”
Emily Atkin
All We Can Save Chapter: “Truth Be Told." Atkin is a journalist and this chapter is about her journey to report about the climate crisis honestly, i.e. with alarm and urgency and by calling out the people and institutions that turn a blind eye. Using an “objective” lens does not mean giving airtime to climate deniers; it means challenging them and reporting on climate change often, in service of educating and mobilizing the public to take the climate crisis as seriously as it is. Atkin writes about how angry she became at the lack of climate action and the lack of climate change in reporting. This spurred her to start her own newsletter and podcast called HEATED, where she harnesses her passion to advance climate change reporting and give it the urgency it needs.
Website: https://www.emilyatkin.com/
Reference Image: theopennotebook.com
HEATED: https://heated.world/
Additional Audio Reference: Stand Up! Daily with Pete Dominick Episode 801 - On this podcast, Emily talks about journalism's purpose being to inform citizens. When the national news is politicizing an environmental issue and missing the connections to climate, it's indicative of our culture missing something.
Leah Penniman
Leah Penniman is the Co-ED and Farm Director of Soul Fire Farm in New York. She describes herself as a "Black Kreyol farmer, mother, soil nerd, author, and food justice activist."
All We Can Save Chapter: “Black Gold." This was in the “Nourish” section of readings, and it was so eye-opening and nourishing to read. Penniman describes the profound and complicated history of Afro-Indigenous peoples’ relationships to earth, soil, and seed, and she links their practices to urgently needed solutions to climate change, from the practical matters of carbon sequestration, to the spiritual matters of healing and health. She cites several examples of Black, Brown, and Indigenous peoples leading the way throughout history. For example, Penniman shares that Cleopatra declared earthworms sacred and therefore protected from farmers, which likely helped the Nile River Valley become the fertile area that it was. She also writes, “Our ancestral grandmothers braided seeds and hope into their hair before being forced to board transatlantic slave ships, believing against odds in a future on soil,” and, “One of the projects of colonization, capitalism, and White supremacy has been to make us forget this sacred connection to soil. Only when that happened could we rationalize exploiting it for profit.” Penniman quotes Wendell Berry and “The Hidden Wound,” to highlight that, in forcing agricultural labor onto Black and Brown laborers, white people have cut themselves off from the very connections that could help sustain the soil and support nature. She summarizes her chapter by saying, “In healing our relationship with soil, we heal the climate, and we heal ourselves,” and closes by quoting a student who visited Soul Fire Farm: “‘Connection with soil was the awakening of my sovereignty.” Penniman’s words will continue to inspire me to get to know and love the soil around my house, hold it in high esteem, and touch it, put my hands in and breathe in the earthy smell.
Image reference from Bon Appetit and photographer Jamel Mosely
Listening reference: For the Wild, DeeplyRooted episode 188 "Honoring our Ancestors and the Earth with LEAH MENNIMAN"
Ash Sanders
All We Can Save Chapter: “Under the Weather. "This chapter is under the “Feel” section of the All We Can Save anthology, a powerful acknowledgement that feeling, in and of itself, is important. In this chapter, Sanders describes a friend who “tried to tread lightly on Earth, to be almost invisible, in order to cause as little harm as possible,” and the resulting conflict this caused, with those around him describing it as a mental illness, when, shouldn’t we all be so deeply troubled by our harmful societal practices that degrade our environment and cause the extinctions of countless species? I’ve heard the analogy: “when the house is on fire, panicking is a reasonable response.” Sanders notes that it feels that we sometimes have to pretend to ignore the climate to ever try to feel happy. She explores the nuances of the mental health crisis caused by climate change, and the new ideas and new language we need. For example: pre-traumatic distress syndrome, to describe the fear for destruction yet to unfold; solastalgia, to describe the yearning for a different reality; ennuipocalypse, to describe the idea that the world may not degrade in a flashy way but through our slow and mundane inaction; and, in the words of her friend, “ignore-ance,” to describe, “returning from a state of consciousness to a willed state of not knowing.” Sanders points out that, those of us who feel “sick” with anxiety and fear, may have nothing wrong with us at all other than living in a sick world, so our "prescriptions" should help to cure the world.
Read more about Ash Sanders on her website www.ashsanders.com, and sign up for her newsletter "Head Snakes."
Michelle Wooten
This is Michelle Wooten, an astronomy educator at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, where she empowers students to learn with art and lead stargazing nights at the local observatory for the public. She is President of StarrySkies South, a DarkSkies International chapter that raises awareness about the detrimental effects of light pollution. The loss of a dark night sky has serious implications for Earthlings, our environment, and our health. Light pollution disrupts pollinators, bird migrations, and our own sleep patterns, and powering the lights generally uses a lot of fossil fuels. Fixing this issue is honestly very simple, by just adhering to 5 basic guidelines - only installing light fixtures where needed, directing it to where it needs to be, keeping the light levels only as bright as needed, controlling timing and only using light when needed, and keeping the color warmer where possible. Michelle has forged partnerships with the Audubon Society, educators at state parks, and Riverkeepers.
Michelle thinks deeply about her role in the world, and has been vegan for over a decade. She is powerful, creative, and humble. She listens and feels and is willing to learn and change. I know because I know Michelle personally; I’ve only known her for a year, yet she has become one of my closest friends.
I’m including her in my “Climate Women” series as a departure from the previous women, who have all been authors in the book, “All We Can Save,” whom I don’t know personally. I continue to paint women authors from that book, but I’ve increasingly been wanting to also draw attention to all the amazing women climate activists I know who aren’t famous published authors in best-selling books (although Michelle has written plenty of thought-provoking academic articles, such as this one, and puts her thoughts “out there” in a variety of ways). I want to also highlight and celebrate the women I know personally who are connecting the dots and doing the hard work of climate action.
Follow Michelle’s lead, learn more about Starry Skies South: www.starryskiessouth.org, and join the DarkSky Advocate Network: darksky.org/who-we-are/advocates.
Sandra Fallon
This is Sandra Fallon, a community activist in West Virginia engaged in public education, outreach, and advocacy for environmental and climate solutions.
I met Sandra in 2016 when I joined Citizens Climate Lobby. She led the Morgantown CCL group, and we joined the Citizens’ Climate Lobby WV cohort for the national annual lobby day in Washington, D.C. to advocate for a carbon fee and dividend policy. Sandra is also a board member of the WV Environmental Council.
We worked together to co-found West Virginia Climate Action in 2019, and to develop a "Public Service Announcement" competition for the West Virginia Climate Change Professional Development (WVCCPD) project from 2021-2023. When I moved away, Sandra ensured WVCCPD continued, volunteering many hours to recruit teachers and manage grants and communications.
To me, Sandra's steady persistence and humble dedication embodies how real change happens in the world. She knows how much work it takes, and how rare the wins come, yet she keeps going, step by step. When I think of Sandra, I think of Margaret Mead's quote: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
adrienne maree brown
I am fangirling over here! I am so grateful to adrienne maree brown for permission to share this painting I did of her as part of my Climate Women series.
Her chapter in the “All We Can Save” anthology is called, “What is Emergent Strategy?” She describes emergence as a fractal way of existing, so that when we pay attention to the small and live into our true relationship with the immediate things in our world, it will have rippling effects to help create the larger world we want to see. That we can trust ourselves to allow our deepest longings to guide us, that we can trust our interconnections with the world to hold us when times are hard. To adapt to and mitigate the climate crisis, we will have to lean into what actually comes naturally as part of evolution, mutuality and community. She asks, “How can we, future ancestors, align ourselves with the most resilient practices of emergence as a species?”
amb also references Octavia Butler, a science fiction writer inspired by the Black Power movement. Since originally reading this essay, the universe has brought me into contact with a variety of other works by amb, including, “We Will Not Cancel Us,” and I’m currently reading “Pleasure Activism.” I’ve listened to her interviews on We Can Do Hard Things and On Being, and I can see the ways that Octavia Butler inspires amb and many other climate activists and futurists. In her On Being interview, amb quotes Butler: “There is nothing new under the sun, but there are new suns.” I was particularly struck by this quote, as I had just witnessed the birth of my friend's baby boy, Aster, which means, “star,” a new sun in the cosmos.
I continue to be inspired by adrienne maree brown and the many thinkers who inspire her. I believe she is helping to guide us into a joyful and sustainable future.
Claire Datnow
This is Claire Datnow, a former teacher and novelist who writes eco-adventure young adult books, whom I met at the Environmental Education Association of Alabama (EEAA) meeting this past February. Claire helped me learn more about the power of writing and storytelling. I know all too well how “the science alone is not enough” in helping people understand or act on climate change. Stories, with relatable characters and meaningful plots, can help us to understand climate at a personal level. Stories can provide us a roadmap for solutions and a vision for a better future. I realized I wanted to paint Claire as part of my “Climate Women” series, and I asked her to send me some reference photos.
I finished the painting just in time for the June EEAA Board meeting. I called Claire the day before and said I’d like to buy one of her books, too, “The Grey Whale’s Lament,” and asked her to bring a copy. Since this is the second book in her Four Elements Trilogy, Claire said she’d also bring the first book, “Red Flag Warning.” When we saw each other in person at the Oak Mountain Interpretive Center, a perfect place to walk among the trees and breathe in the fresh humidity at the beginning of the southern summer, Claire signed her books for me. I showed her and her husband, Boris, the painting. She exclaimed, “Wow, no one’s ever painted my portrait before!” and, “I’m not quite sure it looks like me,” but Boris said he can see the resemblance.
Since then, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading “Red Flag Warning." The characters are so endearing; I feel like I’m right there with them as they navigate fire from habitat destruction and excessive heat, deal with burns and injuries, bond with the animals in their region, and ultimately band together to inspire real change. I’m so glad to know Claire’s books are being used in classrooms, as I think they can inspire youth to see themselves as leaders in addressing the climate crisis. Her websites provide links to purchase her books and teacher guides for educators looking to implement related lesson plans. I highly recommend checking them out!
Kendra Pierre-Louis
All We Can Save Chapter: “Wakanda Doesn’t Have Suburbs”
Pierre-Louis is clearly a fan of movies and adventure stories. This piece is simultaneously a fun and serious take on the impacts of the way we have set up much of our society, at least in the United States, that separates us from each other, from our work, and from so many of our basic needs. A clear message is the need to imagine and create stories of how we can do better and be better.
She notes how studies have shown suburban dwellers have larger carbon footprints. This has been true for me. When I worked in West Virginia University, I lived a mile from campus and could walk to trails and restaurants; I might drive once a week. Now in Alabama, I live in the suburbs and drive multiple times a day.
Read more from Kendra at here website: https://www.kendrawrites.com/
Listen to her interview on Threshold Podcast https://www.thresholdpodcast.org/conversations-kendra-pierre-louis
Kamea Chayne
This is Kamea Chayne, host of the Green Dreamer podcast. As described on the website, Green Dreamer is: “exploring our paths to collective healing, bio cultural revitalization, and true abundance and wellness for all.” The podcast interviews explore themes of climate justice, Indigenous worldviews, land and food sovereignty, decolonizing methodologies, feelings, faith, and ways of knowing, and many more. Here are just a few of the tantalizing episode names: “Vanessa Andreotti: Allowing the earth to dream through us (ep338),” “Perdita Finn: Sitting with the wisdoms of darkness, death, and decay (ep422),” and, “AM Kanngieser: Enlivening our responsiveness through embodied listening (ep421).”
Kamea is such an articulate and smart host. You can tell she has really done her homework and thought deeply before she dives in! She asks the most thoughtful questions I’ve ever heard, such nuanced inquiries that I wouldn’t think to ask; yet upon hearing them, I immediately understand and want to learn the answers. Here are just a couple examples from some of my favorite episodes:
In starting the interview with Zoe Todd: Embodied listening for freshwater fish futures (ep410), Kamea says, “So fish have been present and developing and evolving as a part of the planet for over 500 million years, which is amazing. And you often quote Dr. Leroy Little Bear, who shares, ‘Western science is largely aimed at exploration. Native science is aimed at sustainability. Fish have been around way before dinosaurs, way before the Neanderthals, way before our time. The fish are still around. I wonder what scientific formula the fish have discovered, we should ask the fish.’ With this, I wonder if you can share more about what dominant modes of quote listening or validating knowledge through certain tools or metrics of credibility that a lot of us might need to rethink or question and how you thought through this question of what embodied listening to fish means?”
Here’s another example of Kamea’s incredible questions in her interview with Tyson Yuknaporta: A different kind of growth (ep321): “Your book, Sand Talk has been described as ‘reverse anthropology’, where instead of using the Western lens to study and understand non-Western cultures, you're using your Aboriginal lens to look at Western civilization and its crises. I'm curious to hear a little about your background that inspired your interest in this focus, and as you traced back into history what you pinpointed as the beginnings of our erosion of relationships, desires to dominate, and the unraveling of creation.”
I continue to admire Kamea and her Green Dreamer interviews, and I subscribe through Patreon. They are 100% listener supported, so you should also follow Kamea and support the work of Green Dreamer!
Ingrid LaFleur
This is Ingrid LaFleur. Painting her was so fun! From her lacy garment to her wild hair, you can feel her creativity and power. Painting her represents a new direction in my Climate Women series, as LaFleur doesn’t necessarily focus her writings and actions on climate specifically, but on the broader decolonial visioning that is needed for creating more sustainable, inclusive, ethical, healthier, happier futures.
I first came across LaFleur's work in her chapter, “Sacred Space,” in the book Reclaiming Space, and then I read her again in “A Pleasure Philosophy: A Conversation with Ingrid LaFleur," in adrienne maree brown’s book Pleasure Activism.
LaFleur has inspired me to think about the small actions I take that reflect my values and critically analyze which ones I want to change and which ones I want to keep. In “Sacred Space,” LaFleur explains, “Because the inner reflects the outer and vice versa, a self-assessment is required before embarking on any imagination exercise. We must be made aware, continuously, of our colonized mind, since all is shaped from it.” In particular, LaFleur focuses on “Afrofuturism” – “Afrofuturism stimulates and encourages imaginations to craft decolonized destinies of pleasure, inclusion, holistic health, joy, and prosperity using speculative modalities such as science fiction, surrealism, magical realism, and horror.”
Both LaFleur and adrienne maree brown have inspired me to listen to my deepest yearnings. In her conversation with adrienne maree brown, LaFleur says, “Ultimately, love for the self is the deepest pleasure we deny ourselves. I work daily to be courageous enough to indulge in the purest pleasure of self-love.” I personally resonated with some of her daily pleasure rituals, including, “making the bed, and drinking a fresh green juice at the beginning of each day. Also accomplishing work goals set for the day brings pure joy and gives me permission to play.”
Furthermore, LaFleur’s words inspire me to grow in my professional life as an Earth and Space Education consultant. In “Sacred Space,” she urges us to question the space futures currently being cultivated by billionaires. Living in “Rocket City,” Alabama, as a student of the cosmos and an Earthling at this time in this place, I feel called to embody LaFleur’s teachings and be part of creating healthy space futures for all.
Learn more from The Afrofutures Strategies Institute and follow LaFleur on X @ingridlafleur
Debbie Chang
Debbie Chang is the Citizens Climate Lobby (CCL) Alabama Huntsville Chapter Group Leader and CCL Environmental Justice Action Team Steering Committee Member. She also works for the Environmental Voter Project (EVP).
I first met Debbie through the Huntsville Environmental Coalition over a year ago, and I’ve consistently been impressed with her knowledge and energy, as well as her ability to help people see how they can get involved. I asked her how she's able to manage all of this, and she said, "I'm a genius," and I LOVE that. I love smart women owning their smarts.
When I asked Debbie if I could paint her, she excitedly shared her recent presentation at the #CCL2024 Inclusion Conference: “Become a Climate-First Supervoter at CCL’s Ballot Research Party,” which you can watch here. From Debbie’s presentation, I learned that, while who you vote for is private, whether or not you show up to the polls is public record. This means that we need to show up to EVERY election, not just the Presidential election. When candidates research who their constituency is, we need to be on that list. As Debbie says, “Likely voters are the people who determine elections. If you and I don’t vote, then elected officials do not have the political backing, from us, to champion the policies that WE want. They have to prioritize the issues for the likely voters who DO show up.” Debbie also taught me that climate-concerned citizens are some of the least active voters! Let's change that.
Debbie has also hosted a couple of ballot research parties over zoom this year, which I found very helpful. We don’t have to talk about who we are voting for to talk about how to register to vote and look over our state’s ballot and research the candidates who are listed. It takes time and effort to be an informed citizen, and it’s more fun when we can share that time with others who are kind and helpful, and non-judgmental, like Debbie.
Emily N. Johnston
All We Can Save Chapter: “Loving a Vanishing World."
She was one of five "valve turners" who helped shut down pipelines carrying tar sands crude 2016.
In her chapter, she makes the point that small groups of people working together have made a difference before, and we can again. I think she helps elucidate the broad gray area of our future, that even though we will lose some things, there is a HUGE range of how much we will lose, how long the damage will last, based on the actions we take now. While we have no guarantee of success, we are compelled to try.
I started this painting while at a cabin overlooking the Great Smoky Mountains. While I painted, I listened to Emily's YouTube Interview with Clare Celeste. Celeste is another artist who was inspired by Johnston to create an artistic installation. I resonated with how she drew quotes from Johnston’s writing and reflected on her own actions as coming from a place of love rather than fear.
More info on the Valve Turners: https://stopfossilfuels.org/civil-disobedience/valve-turners/
Subscribe to Emily's essays on Medium: https://medium.com/@enjohnston