Waste in Paradise
Chalk Drawings on Found Objects by Julia Edith Rigby
Two summers ago, in 2015, I packed some sketchbooks and trekked through Iceland and Greenland, ultimately arriving in Kulusuk, a small village in east Greenland. I’d arrived at a time of transition—seasonal, global, and cultural. Summer’s cotton grass blooms were giving way to autumn’s northern lights, local hunters were flensing seals on the beach, the Greenland ice sheet was melting at an alarming rate.
Texaco Seals I
Searching to understand what made the tundra so impossibly beautiful, I found fox tracks, belly flowers, and a midnight sun. I also found plastic crammed into rocky crevices, Styrofoam bobbing on the incoming tide, and oil drums rusting on snow fields.
Melting Walrus I
After spending time among these oil drums, I decided to make them my canvases. At the time, I was painting a mural in a local school to celebrate Sassuma Arnaa, Goddess of the Sea. I was intrigued with the children’s tale of how the goddess suffers from trash and pollution—a modern addition to the ancient stories.
Songbird on the Tundra
I hauled the beached oil drums atop icebergs and chalked them with images of wild creatures. I collaborated with the rising tide, documenting the ways the water swallowed oil drums and erased my images of walruses, polar bears, and seals.
The resulting work represents my efforts to understand this beautiful land, and to reckon with the forces that trouble it.
Contributors
Many talented individuals are featured in the West Marin Review. Please click below for this volume’s contributors.
- FRONT COVER
- Kay Bradner Ten Birds
- BACK COVER
- Cathy Rose Balance
- PROSE
- Jackie Garcia Mann Bolinas Bound
- Michael Sykes Leaving for Italy
- Dave Stamey To Steelhead Lake
- Joan Thornton Two Short Stories
- Barbara Heenan On Religion: Oklahoma City
- G. David Miller Prepare for Landing
- Kaitlyn Gallagher The Blows
- Cynthia Fontaine Reehl What It Takes
- Molly Giles Next Time
- Paul Strohm Masculinities
- Brooke Williams Post-Election Walkabout
- POETRY
- Tobi Earnheart-Gold Untitled
- Mary Winegarden Between Birth and Song
- Ariel Wish Through Motions
- Nancy Cherry All My Biographies Are Lies
- Stephen Ajay Giving
- Karen Benke Spring Cleaning
- Lisa Piazza Here
- Barry Roth Henry Evans Poppies
- Thomas Hickey Monk’s Empty Eye
- Satchel Trivelpiece Oh, Animals
- David Swain Dead Reckoning
- Robert Hass DANCING
- Deborah Buchanan A Bowl’s Circumference
- Prartho Sereno Emergency Lock-Down Drill
- Dave Seter Douglas Iris
- Judy Brackett Swimming Through Summer
- Gina Cloud Ken
- ART + ARTIFACT
- Kay Bradner Ten Birds
- Christa Burgoyne Small Barn and Late Afternoon “C” Street
- Lissa Nicolaus Country Road
- Kimberly Carr Harmon Wooded Gate
- Emmeline Craig Living on the Edge
- Matthew Polvorosa Kline Tule Elk at Dawn, Point Reyes National Seashore
- Elizabeth Gorek Forgotten Summer
- Susan Hall California Twilight
- Sandy White Roy’s Redwoods
- Jaune Evans Fog Heaven
- Isis Hockenos Side Street Chickens #1 & #2
- Caitlin McCaffrey Biggie’s Vision
- Marius Salone and Sofia Borg Young Red Onions
- Lily Andrews Hummingbird
- Susan Putnam Untitled #261
- Amanda Tomlin Laird’s Boathouse
- Jani Gillette You Wearing You
- Christel Dillbohner Iridescent Cloud
- Philip Bone Three Masks
- May Ta Somber Summer
- Toni Littlejohn Fire Under Ice
- Xander Weaver-Scull Arctic Peregrine Falcons
- Grace Nichols and Belle Nichols Southworth Letters from Bolinas
- Julia Edith Rigby Waste in Paradise
- Van Waring Coastal Cross Section
- Rich Clarke Kehoe Morning
- Johanna Baruch Enthymesis
- Michel Venghiattis Lili Marlene
- Glenn Carter Night of the Falling Flower/Lucid N13-2
- Sherrie Lovler Crossroads
- Mary Siedman Bolinas Beach
- Jon Ching Flowers in Her Hair
- Mark Ropers Bound for Kilkenney Beach
- Mary K. Shisler Wabi Sabi Tulips
- Richard Kirschman Bogside Remembered
- Patricia Connolly Late Afternoon at McInnis
- Bob Kubik Fox
- Cathy Rose Accept and Balance
- Anne Faught Coming Together