So you want to work in climate…

How a google spreadsheet became a work of art

In December I posted on Twitter starting a Google sheet titled “So you want to work in climate” to crowdsource resources for an art piece I was working on. I wanted to make one little infographic that I could share with friends easily who were thinking about working in climate. Little did I know that spreadsheet would become a work of art itself.  

With the thousands of layoffs happening over the past few weeks, I thought it could be helpful to share it here as well. 

Honestly, I think starting this Google sheet may be one of the most impactful things I’ve done in the past year. And it was an accident! I started it with maybe 20 resources and over the next few days it got tons of traffic and it became jam-packed with resources I haven’t even heard of.  

Now it is filled with 417 RESOURCES! The climate community is amazing and surprises me everyday. Whenever I pop in, there are always people viewing it. Today there were 50 people looking at it at once. 

Now the Google Sheet has become the art. I don’t know how I could even simplify it into a single piece but I’ve thought about doing a mini-series with a few different categories. 

On to the section of reflection!

Things I’m grateful for:

• Celebrating Lunar New Year with my friend who is an amaaazing baker and cook. She made vegan dumplings, scallion pancakes and nian gao from scratch and they were unreal. 

• Going to my friend Michelle’s going away party. She’s going to be nomadic for a while and doesn’t want to put her things in storage. She had a bunch of women in climate over and gifted everything. It was so lovely and I’m incredibly grateful for her generosity! 

• My friends who helped me last week and were so supportive in the aftermath of the Twitter trolling mess. Thank you all for being so amazing. Things have definitely cooled down (THANKFULLY) and it doesn’t seem like the trolls have actively followed me, which is what I was the most worried about. 

Things I’m looking forward to

• Hosting my MCJ climate art workshop next week. The theme is around natural disasters and build a resilient climate future.

  

• Hosting an IRL eco-art workshop with my friend Maia Kiley who is a licensed psychologist. The theme is dreaming of a regenerative future. We just had one spot open on the waitlist so message me if you want to join! It’s Wednesday at 7pm in NYC.

• Going to a Produce Party this weekend. It’s at Farm to People and carrot themed. Everyone cooks something based around a seasonal food and then it’s a big potluck. I went to one a few months ago that was pumpkin themed and it was SO good. 

Things I’m stressed about  

• Freelancing is a bit stressful! The highs and lows of having months that are strong versus slow is something I’m still adapting to. 

Ways to support me:

How you can make sure I can keep making climate art for all!

• 📚 Buy my book! It’s a great coffee table book for yourself, your office, or your nerdy climate friend. Also a family favorite now- I’ve been getting several lovely notes about how people are reading it with their kids and I can’t tell you how much it warms my little heart.  

• 🖌 Buy me a paintbrush (like buying me a cup of coffee but it will last longer, also I don’t drink coffee haha).

• 🎨 Become a paid subscriber here to become a true ✨patron✨ of the arts. 

• 🤝 If you know of any climate startups, nonprofits, VCs, government orgs, etc that you think might want help with communication through art feel free to connect us! 

• 😍 You know anyone who wants a virtual or in person climate art workshop. I do them for team building, conferences, fun, etc. 

• 🙌 Forward this to a friend or share on socials. 

Thanks for reading friends! I hope this resource can be helpful in some way and if you want edit access to add more info feel free to let me know. 

Nicole