At Our Core
Spring 2018 woodcut relief prints, watercolor pencil, ink 6' x 26' |
Take this moment to think about where you come from.
Ice and sediment cores reveal to us the history of past climates and life forms. What if we took a metaphorical core of ourselves? Of the human being? Rafting down the Peace River in Florida and hunting for fossils on the banks left me in absolute awe. Looking down at the fossilized teeth, ribs, and scales in my hands, it was hard to imagine that those very forms existed in a living body millions of years ago. It demands a kind of reverence, much like that created by our inclusion in the global ecosystem. We place our species on a pedestal of superiority, when in reality we are intimately entwined with present and past ecological networks made up of all life forms that ever roamed this planet. What species are we, to be so disruptive to the life and substances that allowed and continue to allow for our existence? Here you stand, included in the ecology of this masterpiece, 4.5 billion years in the making. Take this moment. |