A small reflection about my activist self and my artist self. Currently part of my time is absorbed by my work to decrease the amount of micro and nano plastics and their associated chemicals (that migrate into our bodies and the environment from many thousands of sources, including artificial turf (https://missoulacurrent.com/plastic-playing-field/). (Note: 4200 of the know 16,000 chemicals are known to be carcinogens, neurotoxins and endocrine disprupting chemicals— 66% of the 16,000 we don’t know the hazard information).
My artist self has been thinking about animacy of water and stones. At times my policy work can feel overwhelming in scope. I seek to recognize the quiet base and background that vibrates in my cells and calls me to do what I can to protect the earth from harm. That foundation comes in part from my artist practice and inquiry which binds my heart and body to the beauty of the earth and nourishes me–even when my time for actively making gets scrunched.
In a Ted X talk a couple years ago, artist, photographer and film producer Chris Jordan, talked about beauty of the natural world as an essential ingredient in the healing and transformation of the planet and how beauty will always carry us home. I believe these perspectives and engagement with the natural world is my reminder of their truth.
Indigenous biologist and author Robin Wall Kimmerer speaks eloquently about the need for human respect, reciprocity and responsibility to support the life cycles of nature that sustain life on our planet.
This is a quote from her book “Braiding Sweetgrass” … “Ecological economists…embrace the radical notion that we must sustain natural capital and ecosystem services if we are to maintain quality of life.” (On page 169 she defines ecosystem services as the structures and functions of the natural world that make life possible). How do we accomplish this responsibility? In her book she quotes Thomas Berry — “We must say of the Universe that it is a communion of subjects not a collection of objects.” Part of my artistic practice is to discover how I can acknowledge the animacy of the natural world including the parts that might be considered non-living.
A couple years ago I took some photographs of rocks in what was left of Hyalite Creek (near Bozeman, Montana) at the valley floor (the creek was no more than two feet across). In these photographs I was thinking about the rocks as part of the “communion of subjects” and wanted to capture “their” portraits. (c) 2022
