Welcome to Sustainable Storytelling!

A weekly showcase of artists communicating about climate change

Climate has a communications problem. Art and storytelling are powerful climate solutions. My goal is to provide an antidote to doom scrolling by brightening your inbox with stories of art that educate, inspire hope, and offer creative activities to soothe climate anxiety.

I’m testing out this new format as a second newsletter each week, so let me know what you think!

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Jill Pelto - Data Driven Landscapes

Jill’s paintings incorporate data about environmental change. Her goal is to engage more people around science in ways that are emotionally relevant and thought-provoking. I’m absolutely mesmerized by her work. It weaves graphs into landscapes in such subtle ways that you barely even can recognize them at first. When you catch a glimpse of them, you just have to know more!

In the painting below, the top surface of the mountain glacier is a line graph that depicts the mass balance of North Cascade glaciers in Washington state from 1984-2022. Mass balance is the health of a glacier: the difference in snowfall gain vs. melt each year. View more of her work here. 

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Jeppe Ringsted - Collaborating with Nature

Copenhagen-based artist Jeppe Ringsted says he “collaborates with nature” to create his ethereal prints. Using the ancient Japanese paper-marbling technique of Suminagashi, meaning “floating ink,” Ringsted dips nontoxic carbon black ink into various bodies of water—puddles, lakes, and oceans—and watches as swirling patterns naturally take shape.

Source: WWF

He then lays paper on the water’s surface to absorb the designs. Each piece, marked with the coordinates of where it was made, is a “testament to the potential for beauty to emerge from even the most unpredictable circumstances,” says Ringsted.

The artwork was made using nontoxic ink consisting of carbon (soot) and sap from the leaves of the moon flower to make sure the ecosystem in the water is not affected. View more of his work here. 

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Climate Art 101 Student Spotlight 

Alaina Coppa is a User Experience Designer for Citizens' Climate Lobby and has been creating gorgeous watercolors about climate in my Climate Art 101 course. She created a piece that beautifully visualizes the common metaphor we hear in climate about the atmosphere being like a blanket for the earth. 

If you liked these, you may like my Climate Art 101 course! I have a full week devoted to climate art case studies and delve into works like these and more. Sign up before September 1 to get 50% off and get lifetime access to the curriculum for $75.

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My Art of the Week

I made this cartoon during my week in Vermont at the Center for Cartoon Studies and I think it’s my favorite painting I’ve ever done. It’s now hanging on my wall! It’s about agrivoltaics, in the most cute way. Prints available here.

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Art Prompt- Make a nature mandala 

Collect natural elements and arrange them in a symmetrical pattern to create a mandala. Take a photo of your art and send it my way – I’d love to feature it in next week's newsletter!

We did this in my Climate Art 101 course and Kim Moldofsky made hers out of cicada shells! Pretty epic.

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If you like this new format, please let me know so I keep it going. I’m in a period of zooming out and seeing how I want to grow my art business and have decided I want to spend more time writing. I’m excited to bring more love to this newsletter each week and hope you enjoy!