2024

GLOBAL WARMING IS REAL EXHIBITION

JOAN STOLPEN

JOAN STOLPEN

(Princeton, New Jersey)

Ice, Sea, Land

encaustic with mixed media, 20 x 20 inches

SOLD

Artist Statement:

Two decades ago Australian philosopher Glenn Albrecht used the word “solastalgia” to describe the lived experience of the desolation of a much loved landscape.

Disappearing land masses, melting ice, evaporating bodies of water, no part of our environment has been untouched.

My painting, Ice, Water, Land, uses shades of white, blue and brown to instill in the viewer the pervasiveness and the severity of the damage caused by global warming. The layering and use of the shellac burn technique emphasizes the fissures and erosion in the environment.

The universe as depicted in my work is melting and fusing. If we do not stop destroying our environment only small patches of light will remain. Land, sea and sky will become less distinguishable from each other resulting in solastalgia.

My goal is not to soothe the viewer but to disturb.

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