In a new blog series for The River Clyde Pageant, Alexis Bulman, our ClimateSense Intern, offers a peek into her research and artistic explorations as she begins her year of working with us to develop community-engaged programming around climate change adaptation.
In January, I started a year-long ClimateSense internship position with UPEI and two community partners: Creative PEI and The River Clyde Pageant.
The goal of this position is to develop and deliver community-engaged arts projects and outreach activities that inspire awareness and action on climate change adaptation.
I come to this position not as a climate expert but as an artist. I’ve made artwork in the past that looks at climate change from an ephemeral and observational perspective but I’ve never made artwork that is truly reflective of scientific evidence and research. Like many people I know that climate change is real, but it can feel like a skyscraper towering over me. Until recently, that overwhelming feeling prevented me from learning how climate change and adaptation practices are re-shaping Prince Edward Island.
[Image description: a panoramic photograph of Fleet, an art installation by Bulman. Six illuminated camping tents of various colors float in a harbour at night. The water and sky are deep blue, at the far right of the image a boardwalk, rocks and trees are silhouetted in black with spots of light from street lamps]
The first month of this position felt like running aimlessly through an open field with my arms wailing about, tripping over logs, sneezing from hay fever but discovering some pretty flowers and cool frogs along the way.
All that to say, I read articles, which lead to videos, which led to conversations with experts, which always led back to my sketchbook. Since the artwork I make is often site-dependent, it means that much of my art practice is spent planning projects in my sketchbooks in creative and exploratory ways. So that’s what I’ll be sharing in these monthly blog posts: pages from my sketchbooks, as well as articles and resources that have stood out to me.
First up: Wooly Sheep and Rotational Grazing
PEI Climate Stories is a series of short videos exploring the impacts of climate change on Prince Edward Island, and the adaptation strategies being implemented here. The video series was produced by the University of Prince Edward Island's Climate Lab, in partnership with ClimateSense, so it seemed like a great place to start my research.
The video that stood out to me featured Adam MacLean, a shepherd located in South Melville, PEI. In the video, Adam speaks about the challenges and opportunities from climate change that faces his sheep farm.
[Image description: two pages of a sketchbook separated by a coiled spine in the center. The left sketchbook page depicts 13 white sheep with black heads laying down in a solid green field. Centered in the right sketchbook page is a dark green rectangle representing a field as seen from above. This rectangle is colored in with dark green, with small white shapes scattered throughout the rectangle, like sheep in a field as seen from above.]
In the video, Adam defines rotational grazing as “a given amount of sheep on a given amount of land, which encourages eating.” This practice increases herd health by providing the animals access to more space and fresh air. It’s also an environmentally-friendly farming practice, as it strengthens the pastures, making them richer and more abundant as the sheep eat the weeds which would otherwise reduce the nutritional value of the soil. This also makes the soil less susceptible to erosion.
[Image description: two pages of a sketchbook separated by a coiled spine in the center. The left sketchbook page has a photo of 13 white sheep with black heads laying in a green field. Below the photo is a drawn replica of the photo in green, white and black color pencil. The right sketchbook page shows five clustered sheep formations as seen from above, all drawn in black ink.]
The video sparked an idea for a drawing project that would evolve over the summer and fall:
Each time Adam rotates his herd of sheep to a new pasture, I could take an aerial photograph of the herd in the field using a drone. I would turn that photograph into a 4’x5’ drawing where the entire sheet of paper is colored in with a green color pencil, leaving negative space to represent the composition of the sheep in the pasture. Each time the herd is moved a new drawing would be made. The color pencil selection would reflect the condition of the grass as bright and lush or pale and brown from drought. In addition to the changing herd compositions and colour of the pastures, the drawings would show the sheep growing up, getting bigger and most importantly, becoming WOOLIER!
[Image description: two pages of a sketchbook separated by a coiled spine in the center. The left sketchbook page is an aerial photograph of 30 or more sheep grazing in a grassy green field. Centered in the right sketchbook page is a dark green rectangle representing a field as seen from above. This rectangle is colored in with pale green, with small white shapes and black shapes scattered throughout the rectangle, like sheep in a field as seen from above.]
This evolving drawing project (temporarily titled Becoming Woolier) could be a fun way to engage with and celebrate an environmentally-friendly farming practice in PEI.
Becoming Woolier is just one of many preliminary concepts I’ve dreamt up during my first month as a ClimateSense Intern. I’ll share more ideas, artistic progress, links and sketchbook pages next month!
In the meantime check out Adam Maclean’s instagram account to cry over his litter of pyrenees puppies and his flock of wooly sheep.