Tunnel book structure with collagraph prints, spainted Tyvek, book board
Artist Statement
There is an uneasy truth concerning Nature’s power: both beauty and wonder can be found in forces of destruction. Through Blue Ice uses the tunnel book format to create visual imagery about the impacts of global warming. Icebergs occur when coastal glaciers “calve”, when huge chunks of ice break off and fall into the sea. As the temperature levels of seawater continue to rise, this phenomenon is happening more and more often. Sometimes, sea caves form within the icebergs as the warmer waters erode upwards. Scientists and nature photographers explore these ice caves to investigate and document everything from the age of the icebergs to the DNA of marine life left embedded within.
Through Blue Ice has eight individual collagraph prints: two on the outside covers, one on the inside front cover, and five suspended as panels between the two accordion-fold spines. Painted Tyvek connects the two book covers. Inside, parts of four panels are cut away, allowing the viewer to see into the ice cave, as if traveling in a kayak. The images, based on documentaries and photographs from television and newspapers, were drawn and sketched and painted over the years in many notebooks. The ice caves are beautiful and mysterious and dangerous. Their increasing numbers are an indication that Earth is experiencing a Global Warming Emergency. We are the stewards: it is up to all of us to change our practices and work to repair our planet.