Kyra Tan ’23
Major(s): Biology & Visual Arts, Minor: Japanese
Watercolor, 24″ x 18″ (click image to enlarge)

A layered illustration aimed at introducing the topic of coral bleaching in a story-book fashion.

Reed Foster ’21
Major(s): Environmental Studies & English
Digital Image, 6000px x 4000px (click image to enlarge)

A rusting beer can caught in tidal grasses. A remnant of a night out on the water. Or perhaps a beer at the end of the dock, thrown carelessly into the grass. Though the story behind the fading aluminum can has been worn away by time and tide, one thing is certain: this can will be there the next time I walk that dock and look down. And the time after that, a metal vessel stranded in the sea grass.

Abby Wang ’23
Major(s): Environmental Studies & Visual Arts
Collagraph print, 11″ x 14″ (click image to enlarge)

At the Arctic Museum, I was struck by how interconnected nature was to the lives of the people. As someone interested in sustainability and fashion, I was particularly interested in the relationship between clothing and hunting in Arctic cultures. After reading about different types of clothing displayed in the museum, I learned that the people fashioned all their garments from the animals and nature around them, but still respected the environment and prevented overhunting. My piece explores this by contrasting a Kalaallit woman in sealskin clothing with the hunted seal, as parts of the seal wrap around the woman to mimic clothing. The equality between the two figures are emphasized by the circling composition, as well as the continuous cycle and mutual reliance on each other rather than destruction or domination.

Holly Harris ’22
Major(s): Earth and Oceanographic Science, Minor: Visual Arts
Altered Book, 6ft x 8in (click image to enlarge)

For this altered book piece, I utilized the intricate botanical sketches and historical images within this culturally important comprehensive ecological Californian dictionary to rewrite the story of Western forests and illuminate the failure of our aim to conserve precious ecosystems. Collaging pages and stringing them together enabled me to bring the botanical specimens together, signifying one, interdependent ecosystem. Burning these pages as a following step, I utilized the destruction to highlight quotes from Willis Linn Jepson that resonated, echoing a past of hope and appreciation, superimposed upon present climate crisis-related circumstances.

Kyra Tan ’23
Major(s): Biology & Visual Arts, Minor: Japanese
Watercolor, gouache, 9″ x 12″ (click image to enlarge)

A short narrative about an astronaut polar bear in search of a planet with ice that she and her family might inhabit.

Holly Harris ’22
Major(s): Earth and Oceanographic Science, Minor: Visual Arts
Installation piece, 6ft x 3ft (click image to enlarge)

The natural world offers a myriad of multiples: a grove of trees, an open field of grass, ripples on the water, a sky full of clouds, etc. But we are also accustomed to seeing the countless ways in which we overlay our own multiples onto the landscape: cities full of skyscrapers, suburban sprawls, agricultural fields, parking lots, etc. We have created patterns of our own and superimposed them onto the landscape. One of the most crucial multiples is our energy system. We are able to sustain society because of our reliance on our extractive industries. We fill our plains and our oceans with devices that enable raw material to be taken from the earth and utilized for our benefit. It is one thing for humans to overtake the landscape with infrastructure, it is another to overtake the landscape with devices that extract from the land itself. Sometimes multiples are overwhelming to the viewer. Other times, they are visually empowering. What dictates this reaction? In this piece, I wanted to instill this sense of questioning within the viewer as they consider the energy industry. Much of the conflict surrounding the transition to cleaner forms of energy, after all, comes back to the human reaction to multiples. Whereas some individuals see the landscape filled with fracking devices as pride-inducing, others see it as overwhelmingly destructive. Whereas some individuals looking out on a landscape filled with wind mills and see obstruction, others feel uplifted by the prospect of natural sources such as wind powering a cleaner planet. I hope that through the observation of this intentionally juxtaposing piece, composed of linocut prints on dyed fabric, each of you can take time to stop and consider your own reaction to these multiples, the feelings they instill and the implications of these reactions.

Ana Gunther ’23
Major(s): Earth and Oceanographic Science & Environmental Studies
Mixed Media, 14in x 14in (click image to enlarge)

This piece focuses on human’s interruption of nature. We get so used to seeing nature scenes in tandem with human-made objects and structures. Here, the monochrome background creates contrast with the blue telephone wires in order to call out human’s impact on the earth. For better or for worse, we’ve left our mark all over the natural world

Lizzy Gracey ’22
Major(s): Psychology & Visual Arts
Driftwood, plaster, foam, resin, acrylic, polymer sculpey
45in tall, 46 in wide, 16 in deep (click image to enlarge)

The armature of this work is three pieces of driftwood. They each came from a different tree, with a unique life, a unique death, and a unique journey to the cove in which I found them. My work explores how to bring life back to found objects that were once alive but now represent articles of decay. I do not play the hand of God but rather the role of an inquirer.

During the time of covid, a mental health crisis, social upheaval, among a plethora of other catastrophes, when we feel at our lowest, how do we fill ourselves with life again? We are all perceptible to sink to the lowest and most void definition of life, and yet we have the resiliency to return to a life more beautiful than what came before. We return to a life that is full and growing and dripping and grotesque. Where does the resiliency to return to life again come from and how do we keep returning to it?

Hannah Zuklie ’21
Major(s): Biology, Minor:  Dance
Emma Sherril ’21
Major(s): Biology & Mathematics
Mixed media and digital collage, 8.5in x 11in (click image to enlarge)

Our work responds to the fear associated with our changing environment. This piece grapples with the concepts of waste, throw-away culture, and the threats of environmental degradation. In crafting this piece, we utilized used compostable bags from Bowdoin’s dining hall to create a chain of warning labels. Not only do these single-use bags represent wasted resources and pollution, but their text warns of their direct threat to human life.

We scanned our physical art piece, obscuring its full form and altering its appearance. This transformation shifts the experience of the viewer. Instead of seeing a clear warning label, the overlapping pieces become disorienting and abstract. Confronting climate change is also disorienting, confusing, and leaves us feeling as though we can’t see the full picture.

Isaac Gelb ’23
Major(s): Visual Arts, Minor: Cinema Studies
Charcoal drawing, 9.25in x 22in (click image to enlarge)

This piece is a narrative drawing describing an encounter between humanity, technology, and nature.

Ana Gunther ’23
Major(s): Earth and Oceanographic Science & Environmental Studies
Straws, 13in x 13in (click image to enlarge)

As an Environmental Studies major, I often think about the relationship between humans and nature. This piece discusses how we tend to appreciate nature when it enriches our lives, like the feeling of standing on a mountaintop looking at the surrounding mountain ranges. Despite our enjoyment of the natural environment, we disregard our impact on it when we use single-use plastics—for example, straws. In this piece, the straws implicate the viewer by causing them to question their choices and their relationship with nature.

Holdern Turner ’21
Major(s): Earth and Oceanographic Science & Environmental Studies, Minor: Italian Studies
Paper, string, ink (click image to enlarge)

Click here to read Holden’s piece

“Revisions” is a concept piece that uses language and punctuation to convey a sense of geologic time. This piece taps into an embodied sense of place, in this case referring to the Pejepscot Dam across the Androscoggin in Brunswick. It documents potential future change at the falls, given what we know about the erodability and change in watery systems. The piece communicates geology and sense of place and also refers to a tradition of art as a form of making peace.

Sawyer Gouldman ’23
Major(s): Earth and Oceanographic Science, Minor: Physics
Cinderblock, hot glue, driftwood, ivy, rocks, 17 in. tall, 14 in. wide, 8 in. deep (click image to enlarge)

The clash between natural and manmade objects sits at the forefront of this piece. I also set out to explore the losses we are causing and experiencing around this planet we call home. I believe however, that there can always be hope if we work hard enough to revitalize and grow out of the ashes.

Sawyer Gouldman ’23
Major(s): Earth and Oceanographic Science & Physics
Sculpey, 3in x 7in x 4in (click image to enlarge)

Katherine Page ’23
Major(s): Biology, Minor: Hispanic Studies
Dining hall takeout bags, string, scotch tape
16in x 54in (large), 4in x 16in (small) (click image to enlarge)

Jillian Galloway ’21
Major(s): Biology
Poetry (click image to enlarge)

Kate Padilla ’23
Major(s): Biology & Visual Arts
Digital, Adobe Fresco (click image to enlarge)

Last semester I lived in Grand Lake, Colorado, a town just outside of Rocky Mountain National Park. Occasionally, gusts of smoke would blow in from distant wildfires obscuring the sky for a few days at a time. One day, the smoke became particularly thick. Later, I found out a new fire had started, and it was the closest one yet- it was in our county. That week, this fire grew from 18,000 to 87,000 acres each day, becoming the East Troublesome fire– the second largest and one of the most destructive wildfires in Colorado history. In one day, I evacuated from where I was living, and by the next day the fire was surrounding our home.

This digital drawing that I created on Adobe Fresco depicts a view of this fire based on a photo I took while we evacuated. The huge clouds of smoke from this incredibly destructive fire towered over us, comprised of overwhelming shades of red, brown and yellow.