"In 1905 the Lillian Glacier was a mass of ice that draped across the landscape in a swath of glittering white and striated grey lines. One hundred and ten years later, in 2015, it was gone, and the glacier’s recession left behind a barren landscape of bedrock and gravel. The land still bears the impression and memory of the ice. "I chose the Lillian Glacier because even when I reflect on the loss of this glacier and witness the recession of others throughout the west, I still find hope in these places. I am inspired by the scientists I walk beside who know the lines of ice like the back of their own hands. I am in awe of the small plants and vibrant green mosses that follow the ice up, up, up, the mountainsides creating climate refuges for other creatures. I find wonder in the first moments of the day when an empty rocky basin glows with hues of pink and gold and deep purple-blue. "It is this pursuit of hope that led me to paint the Lillian Glacier in the tryptic you see above. The first painting shows the glacier at the largest visually documented extent in 1905. The second illustrates how by 2015 the glacier was completely gone, and I filled the void with excerpts from my field journals (the text is included below for easier reading). And the third painting is an imagined landscape of 2125, when the gravel beds that once supported the glacier are filled with meadows and trees grow in the sheltered areas between ridges much farther up the mountain than they are now. "Each painting is a snapshot of the glacier 110 years apart. A glacier lost in all-too-human time and connected to a possible future of resilience and hope." -Claire Giordano Text from the 2015 painting: Art is an expression of hope. It is not the blind of faith of optimism, nor the empty sadness of pessimism. It is an action. An act of finding beauty in loss and in grief. An act of memory, calling the past into the present and imagining a future when this glacier might someday reemerge from winter snowfields. A future where the wasteland of rock is filled with pillows of moss and fields of wildflowers. A future where trees find solid footing in the bedrock of a dead glacier. Art is an expression of hope. In every line on the page, I lay down the paths of a eulogy that winds its way through my heart to my hands to my pigments. My voice. This is my voice. This is my love for this place. This is my joy at exploring and witnessing and seeing. And my hands are harbingers of change. Changing climate. Changing perspectives. Changing hearts. Changing connections as we find our way back to our home. This home. This one beautiful and resilient and shared home. I paint because I have hope. I paint as hope. I paint to share this hope with others. (Claire Giordano, excerpts from field journals, 2020-2022)
Meet the artist: Claire GiordanoClaire Giordano is an environmental artist, writer, and educator creatively exploring the interwoven patterns of people, place, and climate change. In her interdisciplinary work Claire strives to create visual and virtual spaces that foster connections between individuals and our warming world. Claire is also the founder of the Adventure Art Academy, where she teaches immersive virtual art classes filmed on her hiking adventures. Whether she is painting in the wilderness or teaching online, Claire invites others into the painting process and shares the joy of exploring our world with watercolor. 
More about Lillian GlacierThis small cirque glacier at the headwaters of the Lillian River had virtually disappeared by 2015.
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Last updated: August 14, 2023