Protect This Land Documents Change With Art And Dialogue

Earlier this month, approximately 50 people from CU Boulder and the broader Boulder community gathered in the Jerry Crail Johnson Earth Sciences & Map Library for a constructive discussion on the art prints in the library’s latest exhibit, “Protect This Land: Making Change Through Visualization.”

Protect This Land is part of the campus-wide Documenting Change program; its mission is to bring art and science methods together to address and examine the wide-reaching impacts of climate change.

In this exhibit, the artists and curators hold a magnifying glass up to Bears Ears National Monument in particular as one of many cases in which an environment has undergone monumental changes over a short period of time.

These pieces include a collection of images from local photographer Christopher Brown, taken at Bears Ears over the course of decades, vintage maps that tell stories of their own, and a series of art prints interpreting humanity’s connection with nature.

Exhibit curator Naomi Heiser moderated the discussion. She chose the Bears Ears theme, which she then assigned to three students: Grand Challenge funds recipients M.F.A. Printmaking student Samantha Bares, M.F.A. Printmaking student Alanna Lacey, and senior B.F.A. Art student Haley Takahashi. The students had to research Bears Ears first, then create original prints based on that research.

Lacey’s piece, “Minus Eighty-Five Percent” described her piece in the exhibition as “layered.” The idea for adding rows of red eyes across her print represents the people who have heard of or watched the situation at Bears Ears unfold and the mixed emotions those eyes carry, herself included. She said it was her job as an artist was to share the story and pair those emotions with facts to inform those viewing her work.

“Once I researched [Bears Ears] and felt it, I was infuriated,” said Lacey during a panel discussion at the exhibit reception. “I put that feeling into my print and that’s what I want to be felt when people view it.”

Takahashi turned inward for inspiration for her print “The Fish that Saved the San Juan.” By looking back at her own family history and identity and how it relates to the land. Her reflection led her to her memories of growing up with the San Juan River, a major tributary of the Colorado River that provides drainage for the Four Corners region.

[video:www.youtube.com/watch?v=zs6CWH5x-Y8&t=9s]

When she started digging into her research, Takahashi realized the San Juan River runs along part of Bears Ears and was being abused for commercial purposes.

“At one point, the water was so low that fish started to go extinct,” said Takahashi on the panel. “Luckily, [the Bureau of Land Management] passed regulations that made it so that the San Juan has to be at a certain level every year.”

Bares’ work on “Fossil Fooled,” which examines the extraction industry’s impact on land in the Bears Ears area, gave her the space to explore the significance of the presidential proclamation to reduce the size of Bears Ears National Monument by more than one million acres. Through her research, Bares learned that within the monument’s original boundaries are an abundance of what paleontologists believe to be rare Triassic period fossils.

“These fossils that are not really accessible, will be even harder to access and are in danger of being destroyed by fracking,” said Bares during the discussion.

The students were joined by artists Caroline Loose and CU Boulder’s Head of Printmaking in the Department of Art and Art History Melanie Yazzie, who also both have works featured in the exhibit. Yazzie’s print is called “She Cares” and Loose’s was an untitled monotype.

Professor Yazzie organized the portfolio of 18 prints on display in the exhibit. Assembling portfolios to reflect different issues that impact the environment and Indigenous and marginalized cultures is a part of Yazzie’s practice. She is especially passionate about this part of her practice because it’s a way for her to find and help up-and-coming artists’ voices be heard.

“They are the next generation of people and youth,” said Yazzie. “I have been on this journey educating my community and different people about a lot of issues. To be able to see the younger people coming up and starting to find passion about what’s in the news and what is happening in the world makes it all worthwhile.”

Margaret Johnson is a local artist taking a summer Monotype class with Yazzie. Johnson commended the students for the discussion they carried with the audience.

“Having this younger generation take notice of what’s happening with the environment, and what’s happening to our national lands, and having an opinion about it and wanting to do something about it that will have a lasting impact,” said Johnson. “And they’re doing it through their art and it sounds like they’re going to take action.”

The prints are a permanent gift to the Jerry Crail Johnson Earth Sciences & Map Library from Professor Yazzie. “Protect This Land: Making Change Through Visualization” will remain on display through the end of the year.