The New Abnormal


The New Abnormal is a painting installation reflecting the climate crisis in the two places I call home: Oregon and Pakistan. The painting installation creates a climate portal linking the 2020 Labor Day fires in Detroit and Otis, Oregon to the catastrophic floods of 2022 in Pakistan. With over 35 million people displaced by these disasters, the work asks "how do we survive in a destroyed environment?  Can we find beauty there?  Can we imagine the impossible?"  These paintings explore themes of destruction, renewal and possible paths forward through a radically unrecognizable landscape.

I layer paint and photographs to create alternative realities or portals that are metaphors for the interconnectedness of people and environments.  Magical portals or windows transport us to a renewed, transformed place. I apply paint to memorialize scarred and abandoned sites. The paintings recast them, making them surreally beautiful. The images reorient the viewer’s connection to time which visually collapses past, present and potential future.

"We need to be prepared for situations that might currently appear impossible" – Vikki Thompson, climatologist