These most recent works are a series of expressions of grief and anger about the sixth mass extinction of species and the climate crisis that is shaping our lives. These three-dimensional works repurpose construction waste into objects that use color, shape, texture and pattern to sound the alarm. Signposts (2019) is a visual response to the phrase “Blue Arctic”, the moment, within the next five years, when there will no longer be any summer ice in the Arctic. This will end what is known as the Albedo effect: the cooling of our air from the reflective quality of ice will be lost, at least part of the year. It is a piece that is fragmented and abstract, linked to its subject matter by color. Its embroidered text was inspired by Chief Oren Lyons’ speech, excerpted below, and represents my interpretation of the signposts he named, in this current moment when children are being separated from their parents and locked up at the US-Mexico border.

“We were told that you could tell the extent of the degradation of the earth because there would be two very important systems to warn you. One would be the acceleration of the winds. [...] When you see that the accelerations of the winds are growing, then you are in dangerous times. They said the other way to tell that the earth was in degradation was how people treated their children. They said it will be very important to note how people treat their children, and that will tell you how the earth is degrading.”

— Chief Oren Lyons, Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan of the Onondaga Nation