Process: Two plate linocut
Topics pertaining to the environment and the natural world have been a constant throughout my life, and all my hope for our future lies within the examples I try and set for my daughters. The conversations I am having are about things we once had as a nation. Clean soil, air and water as basic rights and how we have thrown them all away. When considering the theme of the exhibition I decided to focus my work on human interaction with our food, with a push toward migrant worker imagery. However, I kept a list of the overarching themes on how I perceive the industrialized world of food today. It reads as follows:
Our water has been channeled, diverted and sold to the most wasteful masses
Our top soil has been depleted and stripped of nutrients
Our farmers are selling out to bioengineers and developers for lack of income
Our field workers are labeled “illegal” yet all they see an opportunity to do the work we will not do
Our food is less nutritious and laced with insecticides and herbicides
Our pollinators have been all but destroyed and replaced with invasive insect species
Our heirloom seeds are almost gone, substituted with genetically re-constructed byproducts
Our communities are obese, disconnected and uneducated on basic forms of healthy consumption
Our processed food big businesses have profited beyond comprehension from American gluttony
Our organic food alternatives are unaffordable and stigmatized as elitist
Our health care costs are off the charts due in large part to our food choices
Our politicians support everything contrary to positive change to this complex issue. I fear they are profiting as a result and change will not come fast enough.
Our politicians support everything contrary to positive change to this complex issue. I fear they are profiting as a result and change will not come fast enough.
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