Solastalgia (noun) is a word created by Glen Albrecht in 2003 from the Latin word solacium (comfort) and the Ancient Greek work algia (pain). It is derived from nostalgia and means the homesickness one gets when still at home, but the environment has been altered and feels unfamiliar.
This project began taking shape during the summers I worked as a glacier guide, taking tourists for day hikes on the Root Glacier. Over the years I recognized certain features as friends and to noticed the incredible change as the glaciers I came to know melted. This collection explores these glaciers as well as their watersheds in Alaska through cyanotype, drawing, and collage. Cyanotype is an alternative photographic process that uses ultraviolet light to expose an image and create a blueprint. Using drawings as negatives, I create something that is part photo and part drawing, to capture a moment of beauty within these water and icescapes which are changing so quickly. Through layering drawing, photo, and collage, the work explores multiple ways we can come to understand and remember these dynamic worlds. I strive to find the beauty in the change and the memories of the landscapes I have been able to experience.
I am so honored to get to share this body of work alongside artists John Hagan and Michael Walsh. Bunnell did a really nice job documenting the exhibit for others to experience:
Virtual Gallery Tour: https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=pqZ3kxSdyZd
Gallery View
“Glacier Lines” (left) is a 24 x 36" drawing, pen on mulberry paper mounted on panel, that explores the textures of the glacial surface. I drew this in the fall after spending three weeks hiking around the Kennicott Glacier and feeling quite intimate with the surface of ablated ice there. I am intrigued by the crisscross of folding ice, layers of sediment, pressure, and melt.
“The Ocean Stands Still” (right) is another large format (24 x 36”) drawing. These drawings make the connection between glaciers melting and oceans rising as part of climate change. I’m also interested in the way glaciers look like moving water standing still and in the artistic process of drawing waves with a pen. There is something abstract that happens with all of these little marks that is interesting to explore.
I got into making cyanotypes because I wanted to figure out a way to reproduce my drawings without a printing press. When I started playing around with it I fell in love with many effects of the process: The way I interact with the sun and the environment while making work, the way I get a blur when the drawing separates from the paper, the blue and white color palette, and the way I get something that feels part drawing and part photo.
The connection between glaciers and oceans is stark as glaciers melt and sea level rises and those systems are changing the landscapes we know. I also notice a connection between the process of drawing the ocean and making waves stand still, and the process of looking at the surface of the glacier, which is moving water in super slow motion but where waves of melt and pressure are also evident.
As I made the connection between the glaciers and the oceans in this body of work I also found myself curious about exploring the rest of the watershed - coastlines and rivers. These places are also changing as glaciers melt and they are perhaps the places we know most intimately because they are where the people live. I created this series of collages inspired by topo maps.
Much of the work that is up in the current exhibit began as a 100 Day Project where I made a small drawing of a glacier landscape every day to later be turned into a cyanotype print. This process of making studies helped me figure out some of the technical process and where I wanted the work to go. I’m happy to exhibit a series of forty of these “Glacier Snapshots” together. It was gratifying for me as an artist to see them as a group, framed and hung up together.
Above photos by Bunnell staff.
If you are interested in purchasing any of this work, you can do so via Bunnell’s website or you can contact me and I will get you in touch with them. https://bunnell-street-arts-center.square.site/shop/115