Carbon Credits
My Carbon Credits journey began in the shop where I worked as a picture framer for several years. Clients often request a simple white or black mat. It can take a considerable amount of time to pick the perfect match from a myriad of corner samples. Cool as Glacier or After Dark? Warm as Ivory or Shaletone? Tint of yellow, pink, blue? Hint of brown, red or purple?
My relationship with mat board sparked an interest in the subtleties of colour inherent in black and white pigments. Painting and drawing with an achromatic palette provoked thoughts about black and white as symbols of dichotomy. Research on black pigment led to carbon, which suggested the Carbon Credit. “the right to emit one tonne of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gas with CO2 equivalent to one tonne of CO2”, AKA the right to pollute, packaged as a corporate commodity, traded on the global market and promoted as progress.
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What if a real carbon credit is a work of art—a drawing in graphite, charcoal, Mars and Ivory Black or Indian Ink; a lino block print; a carbon paper tracing; an array of mat board samples?
I have developed an intimate relationship with, and love for black, white and grey—as pigment, light and symbol, complex in its simplicity. Carbon Credits comprises the following series: 100 Crude (100 abstract automatic drawings on Stonehenge paper); This Is Black. This Is White. This Is Grey. (an assemblage of mat board samples and art materials on 3 cradled panels); Carbon Emissions (drawings of bygone industries in carbon tracing and 100 year old charcoal on Museum rag mat); Credit Cards (lino cut artist trading card prints depicting the 8 allotropes of carbon on Rives BFK paper); Carbon Offsets (carbon tracings and carbon paper collage on Museum rag mat) and Carbon Compounds (abstract paintings with collage on paper, canvas, mat board and cradled panel). |