Six Glaciers, Five Flags

The North Cascade Glacier Climate Project is a labor of love. For forty-one years, Science Director Mauri Pelto has backpacked to the same sites to focus on glacier mapping, mass balance measurement, terminus observations, and glacier runoff monitoring. Art Director Jill Pelto has been along on the journey for over half her life, and has created incredible imagery along the way. Talented folks from Field Assistants to fellow artists and storytellers joined the seventeen-day trek at various points to lend their skills and perspectives (I was particularly lucky to overlap with Katie Hovind, Cal Weichler, Shari Macy, and Karin Kirk, among others). The on-trail and at-camp conversations about climate solutions, flora and fauna, and processing melting were galvanizing and grounding.

My job was to communicate the data the scientists were gathering through art. Spoiler: they found that, overall, the glaciers are melting at an accelerated rate. You can learn more on the NCGCP website.

In my ten days with the Project, I visited six glaciers and created a series of five mixed-media flags on canvas.

The flags are both white-flag surrenders to all the melting we cannot stop and blowing-in-the-wind prayers for us all to act in the ways we can. I want them to help people feel the difference between where the ice was and where it is now. I think feeling that loss is groundwork for our urgent conversations about climate solutions,

I hope the following photo gallery reminds you how small and powerful we are.
(Some shots taken by Jill Pelto, Mauri Pelto, Eric Matt, or other team members).

01. LOWER CURTIS

02. COLEMAN

03. EASTON

04. ICE WORM

05. DANIELS + 06. LYNCH

This journey was expansive and galvanizing and community-building and I’m so grateful for it, and grateful you’re here scrolling through, helping this work expand beyond our individual experiences.

More to come — keep an eye out for a glacier art show in Seattle in April 2025.

If any of this project resonated, I’d love to hear.