Echo
Sage Patel ’25
Photography
Echo is a three photo series signifying how plastic inhibits experiencing life’s natural wonders. More generally, the aim of this piece connects to how many modern inventions are often pollutants that skew mankind’s natural perspective. I suspect many may be painfully familiar with recounting passive memories where they are not fully present, especially as lives have been shifted more and more to being experienced through technology.
The Great Egret
Collin Tardio ’23
Photography
Experiencing something first hand is often a lot more rewarding and fulfilling than seeing it as an image, but through photography we are able to show beautiful sights others may not have the privilege of seeing. For example this Great Egret, sitting among many other Great Egrets who fall out of focus into the shadows.
Who Are We Without The Trees
Anonymous
Poem
I chose to focus on the importance of conservation, rehabilitation, and moving forward into a brighter, more sustainable future to preserve the intimate connections people have to nature.
The importance becomes clear when I reconnect with the natural world around me. toward the end of the poem, I call for a return of kindness to the plants as the power dynamics have shifted. Their survival depends on us now.
Thank you for reading my poem inspired by my reverence for the queens that rule the forest.
Washed Up Waste
Eden Zumbrum ’26
Photography
Walking to the spot where this photo was taken, my focus was drawn away from the wildlife I was excited to see and brought instead to the pieces of trash underfoot. Thus, this image aims to capture the dichotomy of natural beauty and human impact. In recent years, campaigns like Save the Turtles, have become somewhat synonymous with climate activism. However, since the campaign’s founding in 2001, it has slowly morphed into performative activism as brands have capitalized on people’s eagerness to participate in climate activism, attempting to earn a profit by selling products like metal straws. But this has resulted in many losing sight of the real issue and the meaning behind the promotion of reusable products. Big campaigns like Save the Turtles or Save the Bees have played a role in romanticizing the idea of activism, simplifying it down to be a matter of spending money, yet pollution in our ocean persists, affecting more species than people often recognize. At first glance this image looks like a scene focusing on the Sanderling, but upon closer inspection, the plastic in the foreground and crab shell in the background tell the real story: the effect of persistent human influence throughout the otherwise natural landscape. This reveals the extent of human harm but doesn’t monetize it, pointing instead to more hands-on efforts like local beach cleanup initiatives or the overall reduction of plastic use in our lives as a way of making a meaningful impact on the natural ecosystems. Getting people to take more time to observe the ways our living habits have actually impacted other organisms on this planet is important in mobilizing more effective and meaningful efforts to conserve and restore ecosystems.
A New Prometheus
Ben Norwood ’25
Poem
Often it seems that human innovation has brought ruin upon us and the world. Our machines and industry are destroying the planet. Many people have lost hope for a better future. But it is imperative that we do not give up. Hope and technology remain our greatest allies to fight climate change, Prometheus would attest to that.
Untitled
Charlie O’Brien ’23
Poem
Bolivian writer Quya Reyna wrote a book of chronicles this year about her hometown El Alto titled Los hijos de Goni, in which she asserts: “En el mundo no hay ambientalista más grande que el pobre.” This quote hit me hard so I roughly translate it to English and share it here. I think really fortunate people like myself have to become a little bit poorer to encourage a more sustainable future. I think doing this requires not just being frugal but being resourceful, and that is why this poem is transcultural; it borrows wisdom from Latin America, senryū poetic form from Japan, and English language.
The Life of a River
Conor Padmanabhan ’25
AI Art
Earth’s rivers serve as a crucial circulatory system for our carbon cycle, slowly mitigating the input of the consequential greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, into our atmosphere. Carbon stuck in the terrestrial biome will inevitably be converted into CO2, while carbon that finds its way to rivers will be flushed out to the sea. Here, carbon becomes buried and disconnected from the atmosphere for millions of years where it no longer has the potential to contribute to global warming. Dams act as a bottleneck to one of Earth’s natural methods of cleansing. As such, we must protect our beloved rivers at all costs and tear down dams that restrict the potentially consequential carbon from joining the geosphere.
Untitled
Conor Padmanabhan ’25
AI Art
Spreading Green
Liliana Lines ’23
Pottery, Bowl
There are two main components to this bowl. The first is the outside, which I glazed to look sort of like a rock eroding. The second is the inside, which I glazed to look something like an oasis. The most interesting part of the bowl is where these two parts mixed and created new color and texture combinations that make this bowl one-of-a-kind. I think in terms of steps one can take in everyday life to promote conservation, this bowl represents how “greening,” or planting trees or other native species can rehabilitate a landscape and prevent erosion or desertification. The inside of the bowl is calm looking, while the outside is more fluid and dynamic. The interesting thing about ceramics is that they are frozen in time after firing, so while the outside of the bowl may represent a struggle to green a landscape that is turning to desert, the fight can never be carried out; it’s always frozen in time. I’ve been learning a lot lately about desertification and regreening, and it’s a really complex issue; planting trees is not always the right answer, but overall, trees and maintaining/revitalizing green landscapes are important parts of the climate battle. The opportunity does not naturally present itself to most people to plant trees, but we can still support efforts to plant trees in places where the climate or ecosystem depends on them. Better yet, we can try to prevent deforestation before the “outside of the bowl” exists in the first place.
Earth Consious Moose
Joir Grialou ’26
Watercolor Painting
My art shows small steps the average person can take to reduce their impact on the earth.
Merrymeeting, ME
Grace Carrier ’23
Poems
These poems reflect the wisdom and peace that can be found when we connect with nature. In any conservation or rehabilitation effort, we must first connect deeply with the land we hope to protect. As members of the Bowdoin and/or Brunswick community, we are fortunate to have access to such magnificent nature. I hope that my poems help readers notice the small instances of beauty that we are fortunate to behold.
Holey Sweater Mended
Alex Spear ’24
Mended Sweater
Current fast fashion produces excessive waste and encourages a quick cycle of use and discard, which is detrimental to the environment. A sustainable future has its roots in slow fashion, where we care for our clothing and our environment together. This sweater was riddled with holes. Rather than throw it away, I used visible mending techniques to repair the damage. To me, visible mending is a way to visualize love for an object. It’s an opportunity to add your favorite colors to an old sweater or personality to an old pair of jeans. I am looking forward to improving my mending skills and keeping life in my loved clothes.
Kelp Farm
Greta Bolinger ’23
One step that everyone can take towards eco-stewardship is to plant a garden. Farming kelp is just another type of gardening and is integral to our blue economic future. Maine offers “Experimental” Limited Purpose Aquaculture leases for residents to grow small-scale kelp farms in coastal waters. Start your lease application today, or learn more about Bowdoin’s Sugar Kelp Farm by contacting [email protected].
A Wild Campus
Cora Dow ’24
Collage
At Bowdoin there are so many opportunities to help us move toward a more sustainable future. In this piece I used leftover scraps of paper, copper, and plastic to depict native plants that could be planted around campus. I hope to show that Bowdoin’s campus isn’t separate from the natural environment, and that by supporting efforts like guerilla gardening we can ensure the campus has a positive impact on the ecosystems surrounding us.
How Does the Air Feel
Zachary Ennis ’24
Poem
It’s all about the air we breathe.
Femininity and Nature: Searching for Place in a Shifting World
Emma Olney ’25
Poems
For both humans and the broader environment in which they live, in recent years, it feels as if chaos has ruled our world. Dramatic shifts in climate warming are mirrored in human communities by the ever-changing rights that are afforded to people; women, in particular, have been hard-hit this year by the Dobbs v. Jackson Supreme Court decision reversing the constitutional right to abortion, among other attacks on their personhood.
Here is the story of a human—no, a woman—who feels relegated from the social sphere because of her gendered identity. This past summer, unmoored and searching for my humanity, I decided to turn to a traditionally asocial realm: the natural environment. Here is my story of searching for the acceptance of my womanhood that I could not find in humanity instead among the trees, mosses, and ocean; here is my realization over the course of two months that I must pick up bits of my identity in the social, in the asocial, and in the spaces in-between to form a personhood entirely my own.
While completing forestry research on Bowdoin’s Kent Island this past summer from May to July, I completed a collection of 40 poems corresponding to each forestry data plot I surveyed; almost all of the poems were composed in the field alongside the data in my notebook. I entered the island feeling frustrated as a woman entering her adult years, acutely aware of her place in the world—or, rather, lack thereof; without realizing it, most of my poems became related to feminism and how it related to the environment. This poetry collection is a reorganized strand of selected poems that illustrate my journey of reconciling femininity with nature.