I was interviewed not long ago by a wonderful young woman, Jesse Hawks from Los Angeles. She was inspiring to me because she was totally conscious and a committed young warrior. She asked me what was the greatest challenge I saw today. I told her for my generation, it is apathy. I also told her I thought it was because humans have placed themselves above every other living thing in and on our planet. We are not recognizing that every minute thing is connected in some way and if disrupted can cause a cascade of events and unintended consequences that are unknown at the time. Meteorologist, Edward Lorenz has a quote attributed to him stating that “if a butterfly flutters its wings in Brazil, could it cause a tornado in Texas?" Perhaps, we don’t know. When I hear that quotation, it reminds me to always move with caution when disrupting Nature’s perfect balance. We, as a species, do not see ourselves as part of the immense ecosystem, but sit on top and in control of it.
Many times it is with good intentions, but without regard to the seven generations principle so highly valued and understood by Native Americans. I also said I thought it was our extreme polarization. We are all on one side or another, and coming together to share and exchange research, science or ideas is no longer possible in many arenas. I think about this a lot and discuss it with colleagues and friends searching for answers as to how we have gotten here.
The thing that is always glaring for me is how fast and easy it has been to create those polarizations in our political systems, health systems, food and agricultural systems, climate crisis, pollution, and even the environment. We have to find common ground for true dialogue as William Issacs of Diagolos, puts it, “when coming together to form something new, all participants must suspend their preconceived notions, leave their egos at the door, allow for everyone to have an equal voice without fear of retribution and listen, listen and listen with an open heart.” We need this now more than ever as a communication tool allowing everyone their opinions, while listening respectfully.
When creating my series, Conscious Conversations of Consequence Inspired by an Artist’s Brush, I created it with younger generations in mind. I also sought to work with young people in University settings while they were studying a particular track. My series has been used within such diverse academic departments as Oceanographic Studies, Business, Religious Studies, Schools of Education and Leadership, and integrated within the curriculum. In order for them to focus on the paintings that dealt more with their area of study, they had to study all the pieces and discuss how they all fit together and find understanding that there was a common thread I have discussed above. For example, one of my paintings deals with plastics in the ocean. For those studying oceanography, they needed to understand the relationship between the plastics industry and the oil and gas industry.
Remember the famous line in the watershed movie, The Graduate, almost 50 years ago uttered by Mr. McGuire who was suggesting to Benjamin Braddock, played by Dustin Hoffman that, “The Future is Plastics.” My Plastics in the Ocean painting would have had no relevance then. But now, with no way to know the unintended consequences of plastics then, and their inability to breakdown or degrade, we might have been more careful in their usage and littering the entire planet including the oceans with them. So, for the oceanographic students who study in silos, my series created a larger scenario for them to see the global implications of coating the planet in plastic.
After studying the paintings within the context of the entire body of work, they feel more equipped to enter into conversations they might not have felt comfortable discussing. They also said they felt more comfortable discussing their points of view with their parents and others in their sphere of influence.
The paintings allow us to create dialogue, and we have entered into a conversation with each other where it is safe to have opinions, to question, and to search in new places for answers.