Drift Ice Loss and Change - Philotera Art and Photography

There are moments when everything changes. The years of 2020 and 2021 were such a time, and Drift Ice: Loss and Change is my response to the overwhelming experience of that year. Climate change, coronavirus, and my personal loss from my husband’s death are the three strands that braid together in this work. The mutability of drift ice became the perfect metaphor for the changes we experience. As temperatures turn cold, grease ice forms like an oil slick on the sea, and within hours ice thick enough to crush can form. Carried by currents they drift together, and are pulled apart. In appearance a white calligraphy on the verdigris sea, ice forms islands and if it is cold enough, entire contenents. Arctic animals depend on the ice. I’ve seen walruses sunbathing on pancake ice. I’ve watched polar bears jump from one ice floe to another. Then as the sea warms, the ice is lost. It disappears as if it had never been.

The seven minute artist talk given at Galleri Svalbard is available below.

You can watch the video here.

Painting of blue background with white dots and splotches of drift ice

Section 1 of Loss and ChangeThe first section shows three major currents flowing onto the canvas, and within these currents are painted representations of the first kinds of artwork done by our species, a look back into our history in the form of creatures that might have been found on cave walls.

Painting of drift ice creating islands and swirling in currents to create images of animals

Section 2 of Loss and ChangeThe second section shows a flurry of current activity causing the ice to come together in islands and tight drifts. Within these drifts are octopuses, starfish, and seals relating to my life in the Pacific Northwest, as well as the outlines of Orcas Island, Manhattan, and Iceland which are all places important to my personal iconograpy

The painted drift ice beccomes thicker, and swirling much tighter as it approacher land

Section 3 of Loss and ChangeIn this section the ice is becoming more packed, but the iconography continues with images of seals and spirals. Land is within view and the ice begins to clump together in more solid islands.

Painted sea ice becomes large islands enclosing a few polynya as it fill Hornsund fjord on Svalbard

Section 4 of Loss and ChangeAt the end of the ten meters the ice is impenetrable. Only small areas of polynya show water as the ice fills Hornsund fjord on Svalbard.

Painting of blue ocean currents with the first beginnings of sea ice forming

In the beginningOn a vast ocean of blue the first few pieces of solid drift ice form on the surface. Looking almost like a prehistoric creature the ice is borne northward by the currents. SOLD

Painting of delicate frills of sea ice being pulled on the ocean currents

Drift Ice North of NorwayAs the sea ice grows in number and mass the ocean currents grab the delicate white strands and fling it northward. SOLD.

Painting of white ice on blue water flowing between snow covered islands

Crossing betweenSurrounded by land, streams of drift ice are brought through narrow passages where some inevitably remain stranded on unknown beaches. Sold.

Painting of section one of Loss and change showing cave animals within the drift ice

Section one of Loss and ChangeEmbedded in this section the drift ice form images of animals from cave painting, images from our earliest history of art making, as well as a codfish symbolizing my east coast childhood.

Painting of white drift ice streaming past a fjord pierced coastline.

Swept AwayWhite and red sea ice streams past a fjord-riven coastline on its way north. Sold.

Painting of drift ice swirlling toward a snow covered Svalbard

Approaching SvalbardGreat spirals of drift ice sweep from north of Greenland toward Svalbard's exposed west coast. Sold.

Painting of streams of sea ice crossing in mostly white, but some red ice from algal blooms, birth on the ice, and polar bear kills

White Ice, Red IceIce becomes red both from algal blooms, from birth, and from kills. This painting acknowledges the complex chain of Arctic life. Sold.

10 meter painting of drift ice swirling along ocean currents eventually forming pack ice

Drift Ice Loss and ChangeLoss and Change was inspired by the experience of COVID, climate change, and the death of my husband. The newly forming ice is moved by ocean currents to form islands, and also break apart, eventually becoming a solid mass of pack ice as the sea takes the ice to land. This image is accompanied by an audio recording in the form of personal letters and facts about climate change.