2023: North Fork of the Skagit before the Seas Rise
60" x 60"
Oil on Linen on Wood Panel
Produced for Surge, Museum of NW Art
Two paintings, same place, 62 years apart.
2023: North Fork of the Skagit Before the Seas Rise, is an oblique aerial view of the North Fork of the Skagit in 2023. This is the year the artist turned 64.
2085: North Fork of the Skagit as the Seas are Rising, is the same view and is the projected likely sea level rise at the North Fork of the Skagit in 2085. This is the year the artist’s grandson turns 64.
Most of us who see these paintings this year won’t be alive to see 2085. But we can all touch and know and love someone who will live in this future. Our actions won’t change this future, but our actions today can stop it from getting significantly worse.
Estuaries, marshes, critical habitat - created slowly over time - that are home to species we treasure, like salmon and forage fish, will be underwater. Towns, farms, homes, will be underwater. One common question or assumption is that there will be an engineering fix, with more and higher dikes along our coast to hold back the rising seas. But will we dike the entire coast? Are we good at building infrastructure at the scale needed? If we have the capacity to build that infrastructure, shouldn’t we direct that energy into stopping extreme climate impacts from getting worse?
This region will have wetter winters and drier summers. That means more wildfire and smoke. You can see that in the air in these paintings.
Sea level is rising, primarily due to the melting of land-based ice sheets and glaciers and the thermal expansion of warming seawater. The sea-level illustrated in the 2085 painting is not exact—it could be higher or lower. The 2085 land inundation was approximated using NOAA’s Digital Coast Sea Level Rise Viewer and a projected 2-foot rise in sea level.
2085: North Fork of the Skagit as the Seas are Rising
60" x 60"
Oil on Linen on Wood Panel
Two paintings, same place, 62 years apart.
2023: North Fork of the Skagit Before the Seas Rise, is an oblique aerial view of the North Fork of the Skagit in 2023. This is the year the artist turned 64.
2085: North Fork of the Skagit as the Seas are Rising, this view is of the projected likely sea level rise at the North Fork of the Skagit in 2085. This is the year the artist’s grandson turns 64.
Most of us who see these paintings this year won’t be alive to see 2085. But we can all touch and know and love someone who will live in this future. Our actions won’t change this future, but our actions today can stop it from getting significantly worse.
Estuaries, marshes, critical habitat - created slowly over time - that are home to species we treasure, like salmon and forage fish, will be underwater. Towns, farms, homes, will be underwater. One common question or assumption is that there will be an engineering fix, with more and higher dikes along our coast to hold back the rising seas. But will we dike the entire coast? Are we good at building infrastructure at the scale needed? If we have the capacity to build that infrastructure, shouldn’t we direct that energy into stopping extreme climate impacts from getting worse?
This region will have wetter winters and drier summers. That means more wildfire and smoke. You can see that in the air in these paintings.
Sea level is rising, primarily due to the melting of land-based ice sheets and glaciers and the thermal expansion of warming seawater. The sea-level illustrated in the 2085 painting is not exact—it could be higher or lower. The 2085 land inundation was approximated using NOAA’s Digital Coast Sea Level Rise Viewer and a projected 2-foot rise in sea level.
Delta of the North Fork before the Seas Rise
Oil on Linen on Wood Panel
30" x 40"
On display at John Natsoulis Gallery, in the show Unreal
Blue Canyon on the Lower Salmon
Blue Canyon on the Lower Salmon
2023, Oil on Linen over Wood Panel
48" x 36"
SOLD
