Climate and COVID-19: A Community Conversation. Issue 2

Artist’s statement There is frustration and hardship in recognizing that the COVID-19 pandemic is exposing racial, economic, and social injustice, corporate greed and failed leadership, and that so many people are dying. There is also hope. As a family, we had great moments in the months of the lockdown, and some of the changes we have implemented in our lifestyle are changes I always suspected we had to make in order to help address the climate crisis. We have slowed down, are consuming less, and hardly drive at all. We needed this sudden disruption of business as usual to achieve these changes. We are recognizing that drastic and sweeping measures can be taken and that we have the capacity to change the course of our society.

As an artist, I have always been interested in absurd circumstances.

Highlighting the absurd elements of a situation can bring humor and astonishment to issues that are serious and full of doom. Sometimes I feel that my little efforts of recycling, using a bamboo toothbrush, and riding my bike whenever possible are absurd in the face of how huge our problem is and how much more the people in other places are suffering from the climate crisis. But like Gretel in my drawing, who despite the precarious tower of obstacles underneath her feet keeps laser focus on her impossible task, I keep going as well, fixing little things along the way. I will always be an optimist.

Jana Zeller is a working artist.

She performs and teaches puppetry, and has been a painter for most of her life. She teaches art classes for children in her studio. She lives with her family in Brattleboro.