Hours: Tues/Thurs/Sat/Mon 2-6; Wed 5-9

Reception: 5:00-6:30 August 27th

Free Event: Climate Anxiety Conversation and Support, 7:00-8:30, August 27th. Psychologist Amber Klatt and certified counsellor Russell Charlton will co-facilitate a conversation on distress caused by climate change and other environmental crises. They will also teach coping strategies and talk about opportunities for support and community. Registration requested by Aug 26th; contact ecostresssask@gmail.com or visit EcoStress Sask.

Please join me for my Masters of Fine Arts Graduating Exhibition, opening August 20th-27th.

Crushed is an art installation about climate change anxiety. The gallery floor will be covered with over 1,500 eggshell thin ceramic bowls made from clay I dug up in Regina. On the wall, there will be a text about my experience of climate anxiety and grief. To read the text, you need to become a participant: will you step carefully between the bowls, perhaps tiptoeing or raising your pant cuffs, or will you stomp ahead, satisfied by the sound of shattering ceramic beneath your feet? What will you leave behind for others?

Days ago, Jasper, BC, was evacuated and largely destroyed by forest fires. The whole area is burning. Smoke from those fires made it to my home in southern Saskatchewan. Last year it reached New York. Warnings tell me that it’s toxic.

My family has been to the Jasper area several times. We visited there a year ago. Now, microscopic particles of its trees and animals drift into my house through cracks in my windows. The unnerving red light of Rayleigh scattering screams that the world is upside-down. The forests should not be visiting me.

I grieve the losses that our species is causing, and I worry about the future.

Crushed is a manifestation of my own climate anxiety and grief. Through this work, I show others that such feelings are shared. We must de-stigmatize this topic; we need everyone who cares to be able to say so. Conversations are key to climate action. Connecting with others and doing something positive together is also a much better feeling than paralyzing despair, as I’ve learned myself.

“Extreme heat is a global killer — and worse for our health than previously thought, new research shows.” CBC. June 22, 2024.

“Sunday was world’s hottest ever recorded day, data suggests” The Guardian. July 23, 2024.