sanda iliescu

To create this 16-foot long, multi-panel painting, I collaborated with undergraduate student Dillon Laurie McDowell. From the beginning, Emily Dickenson’s poem “Hope is the Thing with Feathers” inspired our work. The painting’s design, process, and subject matter address the dire environmental crisis our planet faces today, but they do so in a hopeful, not a despairing way. Dark and somber in some places, bright and vibrantly colorful in others, the semi-abstract composition resembles a forest in which birds flutter about. Some are extinct, some endangered, others still plentiful. We painted some of the birds; others were made by students, faculty, and staff—38 in all—who volunteered to take up a pencil or brush. In addition to birds, the painting includes images of hands: open hands to suggest hope, openness, and the idea that each human being can contribute positively to our efforts to ameliorate the effects of climate change. The project was timed to coincide with the Climate Transformations symposium organized by the UVA School of Architecture in March, 2023.

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