'Stream of Consciousness' from the Art x Climate Gallery

Released in 2023, the Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5) includes an Art × Climate gallery. The gallery collection features the work of 92 artists, selected from more than 800 submissions. This work may only be reproduced or re-used in connection with the Fifth National Climate Assessment. Any other use must be negotiated with the author.

The northwestern United States (including the states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho) is home to nearly 14 million Americans. The terrain varies significantly across the region, from coasts to steppes to forest-covered mountains. The region’s ecological challenges are just as diverse, encompassing heatwaves, floods, and fires. Since the year 1900, annual average air temperatures in Washington and Idaho have risen by nearly 2°F; temperatures in Oregon have risen by 2.5°F.

Spencer Frazer painted this picture with oil on canvas in 2020. This is the artist’s statement:

My painting depicts the results of human impact on nature and has us question what is and will be. The work bridges the literal and the imaginative, informed by Northwest Indigenous art, as well as that of other traditions. One of the underlying principles of the work is to create pieces where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Often in the background I use written language for viewers to decipher and interpret. I am fascinated by how the mind searches to recognize the familiar.