Meet Marina Dawson

The climate crisis is one of the few things I feel most cynical about. It is not about switching to paper straws, recycling or buying secondhand. The big-picture issue is the mega-corporations that pollute and rape our lands; it is the product of late-stage capitalism and our adoption and proselytizing of colonialism on a global scale. Knowing the prairie lands and skies and calling them home is a privilege. But with yearly forest fires, record-high forecasts, mass extinctions of our wildlife, and the looming effects of climate change, what landscape will be left to paint? I work with aggressive moments of colour and saturation to characterize the wretchedness of pollution and the pollution of colonialism. Imprints of the female body, the harvested body, convey that the land is both body, space, and place—a being deserving of autonomy. I will say what must be said without talking over indigenous peoples' voices to advocate for the environment. The climate crisis is much bigger than me, but I create with the hope that we will find our way; if not, I will immortalize what is left. In this unique way, I can still advocate for the environment and cultivate a decolonial mindset.