40 Years in the North Cascades: The top surface of the mountain glacier is a line graph that depicts the mass balance of North Cascade glaciers in Washington state from 1984-2022. Mass balance is the health of a glacier: the difference in snowfall gain vs. melt each year. August 2023 is the 40th year of the North Cascade Glacier Climate Project, which my dad, Dr. Mauri Pelto, founded and has run every year since. To create this piece I made up a landscape that is a compilation of mountains and glaciers in the North Cascades.
We are unusual in that we are a combined art and science team working toward one goal of observing and communicating the changes on the glaciers and the surrounding ecosystem. Our theory of changing our relationship with the environment focusses on art and science together connect better at an emotional level. We have been incorporating artists annually since 2006. Jill Pelto became the Art Director in 2019. The scientists and artists work together each day supporting each other in accomplishing their goals.
We are excited about bringing fellow creatives into the field to help share this research and introduce people to this important wilderness. We have had photographers, painters, printmakers, fiber, and edible artists with us over the last five years. Below is the story of artists including Jil who have had a residence with us over the last five years.
Jill Pelto-Art Director
Jill Pelto is an artist and science communicator who incorporates scientific research and data into paintings. She incorporate scientific data directly into my paintings to engage broad audiences using climate and conservation graphs. Jill has participated in science expeditions to Antarctica, Chile, Falkland islands, New Mexico, New Zealand, and Alaska. She is passionate about outreach and collaboration with scientists, artists and educations. The range of her art goes well beyond glaciers to capture the essence of our environment and how it is changing in her paintings.
Claire Giodano
Claire joined us in 2020-2022, sharing her love for field art and observing nature. As an artist she strives to inspire others to feel a personal connection to nature. This connection is the core from which environmental stewardship arise. She is focussed on being a creative catalyst forging connections between endangered environments and our everyday life. One key focus in the Adventure Art Academy she founded in 2021.
Rose McAadoo
Rose joined us for her first artist residency in 2021. She is an interdisciplinary artist and writer who creates ephemeral art experiences about places, seeking to generate connection. Her unique edible art centers around human stories and the environment. She creates art both in the field including the natural ingredients at hand, and on location for events that illustrate the evironmental conditions.
Claire Waichler
Claire is a printmaker with deep roots in North Central Washington who joined us in 2020 and again in 2024. Through woodcut printmaking, painting, and collage, she explores themes of wilderness, climate change, and the complex ecological stories that surround us. Her background mountaineering, commerical fishingcreative, science researcher and educator in environmental fields brings a unique perspective and she looks to intuitively express these far-flung experiences. She continues to combine art, science and narrative too help us visuallze the complexity of glaciers.
Julia Ditto
Julia is a science illustrator who joined us in 2023. Her work is shaped by field experience and scientific expeditions, where extensive field sketching facilitates direct observation of the environment. These detailed sketches are the basis for her back in her studio creating graphics to amplify the science. She transforms complex scientific concepts into illustrative storytelling observations and explanations.
Emma Mary Murray
Emma joined us in 2024 combines a love for stiching and drawying with a diesire to up/recycle things to make a more circular economy. She advocates for the climate and for each other using stories of old things brought back to life and capturing the beauty and fragility of our landscapes. She is passionate about sharing this love through immersive workshops.