After seven years of life on Svalbard, in 2025 I returned to live full time in Washington’s Skagit valley. These sea ice works merge my experience of both places. I use embodied materiality in these pieces by burying the canvas in the woods for a period of months before I begin to paint. First the canvas must be cleaned. Anything living within it — mold or moss — must be killed. The wrinkles and stains created by natural leaf decomposition and lichen dye guide the painting’s creation. These forest-made marks are used to decide the shapes of vanishing sea ice, connecting the two environments. After all, not only did glaciers once lie thick on the Skagit valley, their movements carved out this region’s geography, and we remain dependent on mountain ice for water. My work is both about the earth’s changing climate, not only in the Arctic, but also here. Each piece is made with the guidance of the lush landscape where I now live.
