Art is a powerful tool for creating social change – it is an expression of current events, individual identity, and community empowerment. Climate change art is needed more now than ever in music, paintings, and all mediums as an outlet for climate stress and grief and to serve as art always has – creative markers for a culture of revolution.

It has been an honor collaborating on a new climate portrait series with art/ biology student Shannon Bodeau. This portraiture series “From The Same Soil” is part of a Climate Listening Project + McCullough Fellowship + University of North Carolina Asheville collaboration. Shannon listened to community members and created hand-drawn graphite and charcoal portraits to share their climate stories as part of her college thesis.

The Question: How does connecting to the earth connect us to each other? 

“Ultimately, when you love nature and the earth, you love the folks that walk on it.” – ISA

“Really, in case there’s a natural disaster where we can’t get food trucks in, or the grocery store is not able to operate, and that’s not an option to get food, and restaurants aren’t an option to get food… And, y’know, what are we going to do? How are we going to make sure that we can all still be a community without saying ‘oh I have to go get what’s mine’ and causing more chaos in the world? How are we all going to be in union and be like ‘OK, we’ve thought about this, we’ve planned for this.’ We have options, we have community gardens, and there’s other farms, there’s other land that people have which we’ve been maintaining. We have all these different options where people can access food. That’s kind of the big end goal with urban agriculture and trying to be food sovereign. You want to have a system that all plays in together, where as human beings, if it ever comes down to it, we can all choose to exist together and have food options.”

See all the portraits and read the stories via Climate Listening Project.

I am in awe of Shannon’s art and inspired by each of these individuals. The Climate Listening Project hopes these stories inspire you and others to share your stories through your own skills – your contribution is an important climate solution.I am in awe of Shannon’s art and inspired by each of these individuals. The Climate Listening Project hopes these stories inspire you and others to share your stories through your own skills – your contribution is an important climate solution.