Emma Randall - 2023

Artist's Statement

My project is titled, “Nature Too.” I used a poem as my medium in an attempt to connect the audience to the reality of our climate situation. I wanted to relate the damage we do as a society, to that of a smoker and their lungs. I also wanted to express the relationship that people forget about; that humans are just as much a part of nature as the trees and the dirt, but instead of coexisting, we dominate over everything else and are ruining the Earth in the attempt to own it.

Inhaling smoke, sparking fire
Spending our last dime,
Satiating desire.
A pack a day
Sunken eyes, and a tar stained finger,
Watch her body wasting away.

Steal her breath,
Replace it with soot,
Ignore our impending death.
Living in the moment
Ignoring the pain in our chest,
The coughing, causing torment.

Maybe tomorrow it will come.
We will stop breathing,Heart stop beating.
She sacrifices for us to thrive,
Sees us put out flames in a tray full of ashes,
We forget she’s the reason we’re alive.

Her blood on no one's hands but ours.
Somewhere along the way
We don't remember how we need our mother,
Who watched as we grew,
Somewhere along the way,
We forgot that we are nature too.