Evanesco Exhibit

Considering words has long been grained into my reckoning with the here and now of existence. Specific words tend to settle into my being for a time, to color the way I view the world and my place in it. There is no doubt a word for this.

One of the species I found while researching the status of frog populations on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species to include in my beleaguered frog book, is the Craugastor evanesco, or Vanishing Rainfrog. Evanesco is also the name of the vanishing spell taught at Wizarding School in the Harry Potter series. The word settled in and became not only the name for the frog book, but a guide for selecting work to include in this exhibition.

Referencing the Latin word exvanesco (to disappear, vanish) this exhibit presents a selection of works that contemplate the ways in which my landscape (physical, social, emotional and intellectual) is being altered by disappearances.

Though much that I cherish is disappearing, pairing my memories with what is here and now moves me through nostalgia, occasionally tinged with bitterness, towards a recognition that, although the natural world is vulnerable, there is a sense of joy and overriding victory that the energies of nature will always have. With or without humans. This gives me hope, in part because I, too, am nature.