My name is Carmel Brennan. I am a visual artist, a teacher and a curator. 

In the fall of 2021, I began a project called LETTERS TO THE EARTH: BETWEEN HOPE AND DESPAIR. The project began as a personal reaction to experiences in my home environment during the early months of the pandemic. In the early summer of 2020, I chemically sprayed a Hornet’s nest in my garden shed. The following day when I took it down, I examined the construction. The beauty, and intricacy was astounding, and I had destroyed it. It made me think- about the responsibility of my action. What have humans destroyed in their paths to expand in the world?

We know with the response to the Covid 19 virus emergency, how quickly Canada responded to that crisis. For at least the last 20 years, science has warned us of the environmental crisis in climate and it has been ignored. We cannot sit back and blame corporations, the government, the rich, or the things that happened a generation ago. We individuals need do something now. Recognition of the current crisis in the environment is needed for all of us to act.