Watercolor and Ink
11 x 15 inches
2023
This piece was created using the decalcomania method.
See Decalcomania.
This painting was inspired by two local environmental concerns that are close to my heart.
Firstly, the sheer number of extinct and dwindling salmon runs throughout the Pacific Northwest of the USA. The causes of these extinctions are anthropogenic: a history of extreme logging practices, intentional manipulation of streams, overfishing, climate change, etc…
Secondly, the extreme forest fire events we are witnessing in this region over the last decade. We know that fire can be a natural, necessary, and healthy component of our forest ecosystem, but THESE fires are different. They are fueled by climate change and a century of forestry malpractice. Huge swaths of forest along the western slope of the Cascade Range are burning up. Some of these forests contained trees that were many centuries old, vastly predating the arrival of colonists. Historically, some of these forests just do not burn to death. Now they are burning.
Those of us who have lived near and worked in these forests for decades are witnessing heartbreaking and permanent changes in this ecosystem.
I took this photo hiking around Olallie lake with my family in 2021.