2024 Update

BETH AT JOSHUA TREE HIGHLANDS ARTISTS RESIDENCY:

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Beth acknowledges the Cahuilla people as the original stewards of the land where JTHAR is. She's grateful to have the opportunity to work in this place and pays respect to the Cahuilla People, past, present, and future, who have been here since time immemorial. 

The seven weeks that Beth will be spending  in Joshua Tree, California, at the JTHAR residency during the winter of 2024 will in part be focused on including the Joshua Tree (Yucca Brevifolia) in the Shadow Forests project. She will look at how the Joshua tree, a living remnant of the Pleistocene (c2.58 million years ago to 11,700 years ago), connects back to the first trees of the Devonian through the lens of climate change.

The Devonian trees were instrumental in creating a new atmosphere on Earth 385 million years ago, while the Joshua trees, which are in significant decline due to climate impact, have been (twice) denied federal protected status. In 2023 Gavin Newsom passed California's Western Joshua Tree Conservation Act which, while not as impactful as federal legislation, became the first legislation in the state to permanently protect an imperiled species from climate threat.

Beth is in conversation with representatives from several agencies and groups to inform and expand this work.

TBD

TBD

ANGELA INCORPORATING THE EOCENE: Angela is currently working on paintings, drawings, and installations that include biota from the Eocene (c56 to 33.9 million years ago), a time of great climatic upheaval. She has included paleosol from the Eocene (ancient soil that potentially records physical, biological, and chemical information about past conditions near Earth's surface) into pigments she's using to paint images of that epoch.

Please watch this space for additional updates

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