LYNDA NUGENT

Currently featured in Extraction: Art at the Edge of the Abyss

Explorations of the blurred lines between Natural and Man-Made Disasters

STATEMENT

Henry David Thoreau wrote, “We can never have enough of nature. We must be refreshed by the sight of inexhaustible vigor, vast and titanic features, the sea-coast with its wrecks, the wilderness with its living and its decaying trees, the thunder-cloud, and the rain.”

I agree.  Spring flowers and gentle breezes are nice but I am refreshed by the sights and sounds of inexhaustible vigor- extreme nature. I run outside the moment I hear thunder, I love a thrilling flood, my heart beats wildly when I experience an earthquake.  It is this side of nature with its element of surprise that currently inspires my drawing.  My intention with these works is to show the beauty in nature’s power—

the bold, heraldic, sometimes destructive side that reminds us there are certain things completely out of our control.

EXTRACTION: ART AT THE EDGE OF THE ABYSS 

Lynda Nugent: Artist’s Statement

Evidence from the United States government agency on climate proves the number of record high temperature events in the United States has been increasing, while the number of record low temperature events has been decreasing, since 1950.  In a speech given in 2006, President Barack Obama declared that the effects of climate change are giving rise to a frighteningly new global phenomenon: the man-made natural disaster. 

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It is now 2021, fifteen years after Obama’s speech, thirty years after the International Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and while not many questions about climate change were proposed to the presidential candidates, the answers from those questions, particularly from the Republican party, demonstrate there is still strong denial when it comes to the topic.

Voltaire warned, “Men argue. Nature acts.”

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I am proud to participate in the Extraction Art ruckus.  It’s long past time for citizens to take action against climate change and the destruction of our Earth.  For the last ten years I have been making drawings of natural disasters. I have always loved trying to capture the power and beauty of extreme nature-- crazy wind and out of control surf, earthquakes and landslides, floods, lightning and fire.  All of these disasters are becoming more common and more fierce with the global increase of greenhouse gases.

The drawings included in this show are interpretations of the blurred lines between natural and man-made disasters.

 

It is my hope that this exhibition will scream for a call to action.

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