“A blast of cold wind from the glacier throws my painting against my chest, and I shield my face from airborne grit. I’m hunkered below the Easton Glacier on Mount Baker, and swaths of cerulean paint reflect the blue ice hundreds of feet above. My body is a puffy-jacket-encased marker of where the glacier used to be 20 years ago. I’m cold and stiff, but I stubbornly refuse to leave. My painting, which feels incomplete and vulnerable in my hands, carries the weight of my grief — and hope — for our warming world.

I began painting outdoors twelve years ago, and it is moments like this that inspire my work as an environmental artist, writer and educator to foster personal connections between people and nature. In the last year, my time spent painting outside — especially during the isolation of the pandemic — inspired me to found the Adventure Art Academy, which is a series of virtual art classes that I film on my With each class, I share with students from around the world a step-by-step lesson alongside the experience of exploring a place through paint and learning about the impacts of climate change in different environments.”

— Claire Giordano