“Crow Beetle” 2021. 8 inches x 11 inches.
CROW BEETLE is an ink drawing depicting the biodiversity of the northern Muskeg. It shows a crow perched over a white-spotted sawyer beetle, starflowers, labrador tea, fungi, and some wandering fleabane.
CROW BEETLE shows organisms that I encountered when I worked in the Alberta oilfield from 2017-2020. Being one of the only jobs I’ve ever worked outdoors, I relished my time being immersed in the passing of the seasons and the ongoing life cycles around me. I was also trying to come to terms with the reason I was there. The piece signals beneath it an internal confrontation of environmental morality and the realities of being raised as an “Albertan”. While we may make discussions with our art, our diet, our purchases, there is a reality that we we’re born into on plastic earth. One life that leaves a bigger and bigger footprint.
The muskeg is a delicate environment, and one that we have taken for granted when assigning value. We will soon face the consequences of degradating an environment that not only holds incredible biodiversity in its species, but as an important carbon sink, for our own sake.