Terminus: [ˈtərmənəs] Noun: The leading edge, or end, of a glacier. A glacier memorial project facilitated by Olympic National Park.

“Between 1982 and 2009, the number of glaciers in the Olympic Mountains dropped from 266 to 184. We know that number will dwindle further as the climate continues to change. The goal of the Terminus Project is to immortalize glaciers of the Olympic Mountains through art. As these glaciers melt away, the works of art will live on as a reminder that they were meaningful, and are still meaningful.”

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My painting is titled Patterns of Loss & Hope: The Lillian Glacier

In 1905 the Lillian Glacier was a mass of ice that draped across the landscape in a swath of glittering white and striated grey lines. One hundred and ten years later, in 2015, it was gone, and the glacier’s recession left behind a barren landscape of bedrock and gravel. The land still bears the impression and memory of the ice.

I chose the Lillian Glacier because even when I reflect on the loss of this glacier and witness the recession of others throughout the west, I still find hope in these places. I am inspired by the scientists I walk beside who know the lines of ice like the back of their own hands. I am in awe of the small plants and vibrant green mosses that follow the ice up, up, up, the mountainsides creating climate refuges for other creatures. I find wonder in the first moments of the day when an empty rocky basin glows with hues of pink and gold and deep purple-blue.

It is this pursuit of hope that led me to paint the Lillian Glacier in the tryptic you see on this page. The first painting shows the glacier at the largest visually documented extent in 1905. The second illustrates how by 2015 the glacier was completely gone, and I filled the void with excerpts from my field journals (the text is included below). And the third painting is an imagined landscape of 2125, when the gravel beds that once supported the glacier are filled with meadows and trees grow in the sheltered areas between ridges much farther up the mountain than they are now.

Each painting is a snapshot of the glacier 110 years apart. A glacier lost in all-too-human time and connected to a possible future of resilience and hope.

Special thanks to all the park staff who made the project possible, especially park scientist Bill Baccus, whose knowledge, and on-the-ground observations of the Lillian glacier and other post-glacial valleys in the Olympics was instrumental in the creation of my paintings.

The Terminus Project was also made possible with support from the Washington National Park Fund, North Olympic Library System, and Discover Your Northwest.