Mending Place (2018-2022)

Cut canvas paintings of endangered landscapes are carefully stitched back together in representation of the “mending” of places that are barely hanging on by a thread.

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“There are too many,” was what I declared when I embarked on a series of artworks to capture and catalog endangered animals. While researching for that series, I stumbled upon the one key thread that spanned between them all: individual ecosystems. Nearly every endangered animal has a corresponding endangered place behind it, so it was only natural to continue the series into exploring endangered landscapes. Because sadly, there are too many.

In these works, I’ve focused on the “big” ones. The well-known, iconic places that cry out the loudest about human impact. Melting glaciers, disappearing forests and coastlines, our fading stars; these are places that stir our spirits and call to our souls. They are places that people have gone to seek mending. The landscapes are changing, some beyond repair. These artworks are totems; windows into what was.

My work involves a distinct process of destruction. I create paintings, then cut or tear those paintings apart. The destroyed painting then becomes the fabric of something new. For “Mending Place” these landscapes become pieced together tapestries. The stitchwork and threads a design element, but also a comment on the legislative futility of trying to restore a habitat already so ruined. Each landscape has been mended, recreated but profoundly changed.

Sara Everett