The Arctic
I have long been interested in space and geologic time in the natural landscape. Geology and nephology/earth and sky are brackets that anchor this ongoing body of work. My recent artist’s books stem from the Arctic Circle Residency in 2023, aboard a three-masted sailing vessel in the Arctic Ocean surrounding the archipelago of Svalbard, ten degrees south of the North Pole. An international group of fellows that included artists, musicians, and scholars conducted research and held conversations engaging issues around this important and increasingly threatened area of the globe.
While the Arctic exists as a place of imagination for most people, the residency brought home that its problems directly impact the world at large. Ice melt, changing jet-stream, loss of species, and increased cloud cover all threaten our existence no matter where we live. And the world at large is causing its problems, such as forever chemicals from polluted industrial sites that follow air streams northward and contaminate the Arctic food chain, from sea life to humans. The sublimely beautiful and terrifying landscape of the Arctic is coupled with the realities of environmental threats, internecine politics, territorial gamesmanship, and a competitive global economy.
Arctic explorer’s stories are all too often about being first, and finding fame and fortune. Instead, I seek to create an ephemeral translation from research and experience into art. I have deepened my understanding of the Arctic by traveling to the glaciated arctic area in the Northwest Territories of Canada, the Swedish Lapland for the northern light skies, and the international territory of Svalbard. The landscape is so beyond human scale, it takes time and immersion to move beyond mere impressions.
Svalbard Stone Poems
2023
Drum leaf binding with paper wrapper
Archival inkjet on acid free paper
closed: 5.5”H x 8.25”W x 0.33”D; open: 5.5””H x 16.25”W
Edition 15 plus one artist proof
Photographs from Arctic Circle Residency, Spitsbergen/Svalbard, Norway
Printed as Artist-in-Residence at Halden Bookworks, Tistedal, Norway
In this book, a close look at the highly varied geology across the island inspired visual poems made from linearly arranged rocks found at each landing spot. Each folio shows the poem arranged on location; the facing page shows the poem in its larger context. This visual conversation humanize an otherwise nearly incomprehensibly grand landscape.
Treskelen, Hornsund
Lillihookbreen
Dahlbrebukta
Dahlbrebukta
Cocoon
2023
Accordion book, archival inkjet on acid free paper with metallic rubbings of arctic rocks
closed: 3”H x 4 1/8”W; open: 3”H x 41”W
Edition 93
Photographs from Arctic Circle Residency, Spitsbergen/Svalbard, Norway
Printed as Artist-in-Residence at Halden Bookworks, Tistedal, Norway
Images of rocks reflecting heat and melting into the snow in the Arctic, coupled with definitions of the word cocoon that are both comforting and threatening. A reflection on the austere beauty of the Arctic and the challenges of climate change.
Arctic Clouds
2023
Spiral accordion fold, archival inkjet on Japanese mulberry paper, with paper wrapper
closed: 3”H x 3”W; open: 3”H x 12”W
Edition 45
Photographs of clouds in the Arctic are paired with texts describing the global warming effects of cloud cover on snowpack and ice in the Arctic. The spiraling action of evaporation and cloud cover reflecting heat back to the earth is made overt through the spiraling accordion book fold. The book is a visual and physical manifestation of a little known cause and effect of global warming.
The text from the book:
A warming Arctic creates more water vapor, creating more clouds. Clouds insulate, so less heat escapes into the atmosphere. The earth emits heat as longwave radiation. The exposed dark ocean absorbs more heat from the sun. The result is a faster warming in the Arctic. Scientists predict that the Arctic could be summer ice-free by the 2030s.
Artists and scientists explore the Arctic Ocean and the Svalbard Archipelago
Arctic Circle Residency
2023
Located just 10 degrees south of the North Pole, this three-week expedition with the Arctic Circle Residency is conducted from a three-masted sailing schooner. Participants engage in pertinent issues through fieldwork, research, and interdisciplinary collaboration.
I am preparing for this incredible opportunity through wide-ranging research, including climate change, the Anthropocene and the arctic, and geo-political factionalism, as well as collecting relevant artists’ books for visual research.
As the residency is in June 2023, when there are 24 hours of sunlight, I am counterbalancing it with a research trip to the Canadian Territories in September 2022 to experience the Northern Lights. From a remote island out of Yellowknife, south of the Arctic Circle and near the magnetic North Pole, the trip is conducted through the Cloud Appreciation Society, of which I am member #40,182.
Artist Residency at Halden Bookworks in Tistedal, Norway
Halden Bookworks Residency
2023
Following the Artist Circle Residency, I will be an artist-in-residence at Halden Bookworks in Tistedal, Norway, sixty miles from Oslo. The center is equipped with letterpress, paper, book, and digital printing studios. This provides me the opportunity to produce mockups and initial projects from the research conducted while in the Arctic. To prepare for this opportunity, I am refreshing my letterpress skills through workshops at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts and a two-week intensive at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina.