Sustainability. Sometimes thinking about this gives me a headache. The problems we face are so big and my contribution towards solving them so small. Presently, I am able to do simple things; I am great at turning off lights, not running the tap, buying local products and recycling. I have not made much headway into my use of plastic bottles, and my love of driving takes up a lot of carbon space but I am trying to reduce these indulgences.
In my work I print on older editions, using water based inks (this is not entirely benign, but much better than oil based inks and their solvents for the environment) and my recent body of work actually sprung from an ecological idea: What is there in our drinking water that we can’t see but might be affecting our health? One of the prints, posted here, Antimony for Russell is an imaginary visual representation of antimony, a naturally occurring element that didn’t used to make its way into the water stream in large amounts. Now that it does it has potential to cause all sorts of physical problems.
My granddaughter Hazel is another reason for me to worry about how we treat our environment. She represents the future and when I worry about her I am really worrying about the future of all children. So worry and sentimentality are the reasons that I keep on trying to do better, perhaps not the best reasons but better than some.
Pratt | CSDS 