For the second year in a row, I had the privilege of joining The North Cascades Glacier Climate Project (NCGCP) for a week as an artist in residence. The NCGCP was founded in 1983 by Dr. Mauri Pelto to study and monitor glaciers in the mountains of Washington.

Their work creates a continuous record of the changes happening each year, which is critical to our understanding of how the ice is impacted by climate change. Since his project began, four of the glaciers he monitored have disappeared, and all are experiencing severe loss due to global warming. On average the glaciers of the region have lost 30% of their volume and many have retreated hundreds of meters up the mountain slopes.

This year, I focused on creating story sketches that integrate firsthand observations of the glaciers and alpine landscape with written notes about the experience (and data from the scientists).