courtney mattison

courtneymattison

Oh my. Beautiful and sad all in one glance. This is a glazed stoneware and porcelain installation by American artist/ocean advocate Courtney Mattison, titled “Our Changing Seas III”. Here are her eloquent and inspiring words about this work and her mission:

“This piece explores the rapid transition that corals throughout the tropics and subtropics are making from healthy, colorful and diverse to sickened and bleached as a result of human-caused climate change, which is putting coral reefs into the proverbial “eye of the storm.” At its heart, this piece celebrates my favorite aesthetic aspects of a healthy coral reef surrounded by the sterile white skeletons of bleached corals swirling like the rotating winds of a cyclone. There is still time for corals to recover even from the point of bleaching if we act quickly to decrease the threats we impose. Perhaps if my work can influence viewers to appreciate the fragile beauty of our endangered coral reef ecosystems, we will act more wholeheartedly to help them recover and even thrive.”

Beautiful.

{Thanks to Mariela Di Nardo for pointing me to this work.}






comments (9)

  1. Sabine S. from Germany /// 09.14.2016 /// 5:10am

    luv it!
    ♥ ♥ ♥
    Best wishes sent by
    Sabine from WO(rms) in Germany

  2. Mariela Di Nardo /// 09.14.2016 /// 11:21am

    Great that you like her work and you posted it! Happy to help! ; )

  3. Natalie /// 09.15.2016 /// 3:00pm

    Aw man I just want to touch it, I know I shouldn’t, but I do.

    – Natalie
    http://www.workovereasy.com

  4. Lannie Hart /// 09.17.2016 /// 8:14am

    Thank you Courtney for creating not only a beautiful and inspiring work of art but for bringing to the forefont one more way in which we are destroying our planet.

  5. Rebecca Bense /// 09.17.2016 /// 9:43am

    WOW! incredible fascinating

  6. alex /// 09.17.2016 /// 11:59am

    These are so lovely! I think you might be interested in the work of my friends, Sayuri:
    http://sayurisworld.com/projects.html

  7. the jealous curator /// 09.17.2016 /// 12:12pm

    yes! i’ve written about her jellyfish in portland : )

  8. Marcy Lally /// 09.19.2016 /// 6:16am

    You have created a wonderfully revealing display of our fragile ecology in the ever changing balance.

  9. Margot Hattingh /// 10.01.2016 /// 12:36am

    Spectacular and the scale incredible. I love the ‘galaxy’ or maybe ‘plughole’ swirl – it adds a subtle layer of meaning