Beyond Paralysis

 Jill Vaughn

Solo Exhibition at the Willoughby Wallace Memorial Library

This exhibition is a culmination of work that reflects environmentally-related hot button issues for me; from the Pacific Garbage Patch — an area twice the size of Texas and growing — to surface mining taking place within a few miles from where I live. It confronts my complicity with the over consumption and demand of our planet’s natural resources.

Sometimes I feel overwhelmed with the distressing environmental losses around me. These losses are real life problems. I wonder, how can my art making make a difference?

The writer Robin Wall Kimmerer’s words motivate me:

Despair is paralysis. It robs us of agency. It blinds us to our own power and the power of the earth.

I can relate to the paralysis of despair, and art making pushes me out of that place. As I work through my sorrow and anger of these losses on paper I have a deeper awareness and respect for my environment. This comes as I see the visual connecting fibers in my work as they appear in Nature.  I see the reciprocity of my lungs to the plants around me.  I see my blood vessels as roots nourishing my body just as the embedded roots of a tree are nourished by the earth. 

We ARE all Connected, I feel bonded to Nature as a mother is bonded to her child. Once bonded we protect and fight for what is fair and right.  And this has given me hope that my mark making can actually make change; inwardly in how I relate to nature, and outwardly by fostering a healing force that is somehow contagious.