Svalbard Abstractions is a body of visual artwork based on my first-hand experience of witnessing climate change in the Arctic. In the summer of 2023, I participated in the Arctic Circle Residency, where I spent three weeks living on a Barquentine tall ship, sailing the archipelago of Svalbard with artists and scientists working around themes of climate change. This experience of the realities of climate change and mass extinction and how they impact our oceans and world ecosystems, profoundly changed me. It has been a major catalyst for my ongoing climate work.

Svalbard Abstractions is a geometric mixed media collage-based painting series. Each work acts as an empathetical monument to different aspects of the Arctic climate and landscape. Many of these works are based on my close observation of the landscape, with references to specific rocks I encountered, or certain sounds icebergs make as they melt. Others, through their geometry and composition, reflect a greater mystical energy suggestive of deep time and interspecies consciousness.

My goal is to reflect the interconnectedness of our world, and to shift the viewer’s consciousness into a place of empathetic connectivity towards all beings. In addition to my visual work, I write poetry from this same lens, interviewing ice and bones and creating conversations across species, which inspire my visual art.