Jill Pelto
– Artist’s Website –
In 2012 I accompanied Dr. Mauri Pelto, his daughter Jill, and son Ben, to the North Cascade range in Washington, and Easton Glacier, on his annual ice survey, the North Cascades Glacier Climate Project, which has been ongoing for 30 years.
Jill, when she wasn’t taking careful measurements, charging up and down insane ice inclines, and leaping over crevasses, would sit, look, and take out her paints.
Grist:
Climate data is usually seen in pixels, spreadsheets, and maps. But watercolor paintings? Not so much.That’s what makes a growing series of paintings by Maine-based artist Jill Pelto so striking. They combine haunting imagery from the natural world with hard data showing the impact climate change is having.
Large wildfires are happening more frequently and burning more area across the western U.S. in part due to rising temperatures. The global average temperature is shown between the flames and the forest.
Jill Pelto
The message can be subtle, with the global average temperature graph tucked in a painting that shows wildfires raging. But the point is clear. Data — and the way humans are influencing that data by emitting greenhouse gases — is an essential part of the landscape and the changes that are happening.
And by embedding that message within paintings, the works become a Trojan horse for science to reach a public that doesn’t necessarily think about data points and models.
“Most of the population doesn’t pay attention to the scientific community and research,” Pelto said. “That’s the group I want to target.”