SHADOW’S EDGE

“LAYERS OF ICE now emerge behind three figures lightly sketched in pencil, balanced on the crest of a dark ridge. Their thin rope is a sharp line against shattered blue fractures. On every glacier, my gaze is drawn into the crevasses. Amid the rays of indigo and bone black that weave the air between the walls, I recognize an inky peace. I know what is down there, near the bottom, where the shadows feel like velvet. I have been close before, pulled out by the snaking lines of an IV. Now I paint each rope carefully. Lifelines.

I wonder if the climbers in my watercolor notice the land around them teetering on the edge. As they take rest steps toward the summit, do they see the crusts of exposed ice like scabs on the flanks of the upper mountain? Do they understand that the widening bergschrund is the wound of a dying glacier?

….

OFTEN the silhouetted figures are the final pieces I paint. The precise lines of their bodies are vulnerable—easily smudged by a careless stroke meant to depict a crevasse. The tiny hairs of my smallest brush are saturated in an undiluted black. I slow my breathing as human forms emerge: each rounded edge and smooth line is critical. I see memories of lost friends, past climbs and past selves. But the figures could be anyone: we are all connected to each other by lifelines as we navigate the remnants of vanishing worlds. We walk the line between shadow and light, and we slowly move forward. Into the uncertainty beyond the frame. And this gives me hope.”

- Excerpt from an article for Alpinist magazine, bearing the title of this series.

THE SHADOW’S EDGE series is an ongoing painting project begun in 2014. These paintings are made at intersection of my personal understanding of mortality, environmental grief, and the bright glimmers of hope that shine like a snowfield after a storm.