3000 days … and counting…
one artist’s response to the climate crisis
Sharon Field
Australia
January 2025
© Sharon Field. 3000 days ... and counting ... at 26 January 2025
Imagine … You are looking out at your favourite place in nature …
• Look – a riot of colour with blues, greens, yellows, reds
• Listen – rustling leaves, animals, birds, insects, sounds on the wind
• Feel – pulsing life from an electrically charged energy in the air which tingles on the surface of your skin
Now, re-imagine this same area as a massive graveyard, with every single plant dead.
• Look – skeletal remains of trees as far as the horizon and beyond, all grey
• Listen – the sounds of silence
• Feel – deadness in the air. This is a potential reality, a world unrecognisable
There are only the shadows of things that are no longer there.
Context
For a long time, I have been concerned about environmental issues and the impact people have on the natural environment – sometimes positive, sometimes not so; sometimes intentional, sometimes unintentional.
For decades, scientists and activists have tried their best to bring about an awareness of human-induced climate change and habitat destruction.
Why have so few listened? We have now reached a global tipping point. Ecosystems are collapsing before our eyes. We can all see it.
To save what we still can, we all need to understand and acknowledge this fact, and adapt our attitudes and behaviours to a different reality.
However, many people find it very difficult to comprehend these messages – the potential problems are just so big, so overwhelming.
And, the messages people are receiving from the best intentioned scientists and policy makers are global and complex.
Such messages can make it difficult for people to translate this vital information to their local area. It can be disempowering such that people just switch off.
Yet, people I’ve met all around the world are keen to do something … anything … but they just don’t know what to do.
© Sharon Field. 3000 days ... and counting ...
So, I thought, what can I do?
At home I have planted hundreds of trees, as well as flowering plants for bees and birds, decreased my use of plastics, and try to plan any trip I do as a multi- not single purpose trip.
I have also oriented my artwork in its messaging to this end. Why 3000 days?
A United Nations IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report at the end of 2021 said that:
• we need to keep the global temperature below a 1.5 degree Celsius (or 2.7 degree F) rise by 2030
• I thought about 2030 ... at that time, 2030 was only 3000 days away
I also thought about botanical art over the millennia which has always responded to the time in which it was being made. So what are the key issues of my time? Clearly, for me they are climate change and rapidly diminishing biodiversity:
• As a botanical artist, I decided to set myself a challenge: to do a drawing/painting a day for the next 3000 days to highlight this issue
Since 2022, we have exceeded that temperature goal many times. But when I began this artwork, that was the intent.
Why a scroll?
I could have painted a series of discrete images, or created a specific-purpose journal, but none of these approaches would serve my purpose.
• I decided on a scroll as a form because it would remain intact, it would tell a story and it would have a visual impact
• I started on Earth Hour Day – 26 March 2022
The Scrolls have become a visual representation of all the countless words and warnings people have heard about the impact of climate change and which now, they just don’t hear any more.
So far I have completed over 1,020 images, each of which is numbered, dated and described with its botanical and common names, and each has a small story attached to it. This information is held in a data base.
Every day I am looking around for a new plant to draw.
How is it done?
One plant a day is drawn directly onto the paper – no preliminary pencil sketches are done. The physical nature of the scroll means that I cannot plan in advance the placement of each plant.
I do one drawing after the other using a fine point black pen, holding archival ink, with the work painted in watercolour, washed over the pen.
Impact
3000 days … and counting … has become an important outreach tool for me.
When they are rolled out in public, there is always an intake of breath. The Scrolls
• have an impact on people because of their size
• use a visual language which people understand
• tell a story - the blending of plants on The Scrolls reflect what occurs in nature in a healthy biodiverse habitat. In nature, there is no formal landscaping or planning. Mother Nature just throws it out there and lets the plants and animals create their own little worlds ... and it works!
• present subject matter which people relate to because everyone knows and likes something about plants.
I have shown 3000 days ... and counting ... to many live audiences now. They always generate considerable discussion, along with a few tears.
Getting this sort of reaction is encouraging because it means my message is having an impact.
The question I have been asked all over the world is, But what can I do?
3000 days … and counting … has been presented to audiences backed by a beautiful, haunting song, Fear, written by a young Australian singer/songwriter, Matt Arnaudon, or Ubuntu, sung by the A Chorus of Women, Canberra.
The Scrolls
• have had a more classical musical composition written for them, which I commissioned from Dante Clavijo (Canberra)
• have inspired two beautiful poems which were heartfelt responses to viewing the work
• have been presented to a variety of live audiences in:
o USA: American Society of Botanical Artists (ASBA) Annual Conference in St Louis (2021), New York (2022) and Pittsburgh (2023) as well as to other groups in New York and Boston (2024)
o Austria: Get Together at the Botanical Gardens in Vienna (2023)
o Australia: Salon talk, Canberra (2023), Ginninderry Conservation Trust, Canberra (2023 and 2024), Fringe Festival, Melbourne (2024), Australian National Botanical Gardens, Canberra (2024), Arts National (Molongolo) (2024)
o France: the Association des Passionnes d’illustration Botanique (AsPIB), Lyon (2024) and at the Prodromus Gallery, Paris (2024)
o The Netherlands: The Boswinkel, Amsterdam (2024)
o United Kingdom: The Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium, London and the Director of the Shirley Sherwood Gallery, London (2024)
o Singapore: The Singapore Botanic Gardens (2024)
o via Zoom to many international audiences
The scrolls have been rolled out for many smaller groups and individuals as the opportunity has arisen overseas and here in Australia.
Requests for a live viewing the scrolls continue to come in from overseas.
At first people look at the artwork, then they begin the discussion, often by asking...
I want to do something. But what can I do?
... I live in a flat/apartment ... I can’t plant trees ... it’s too hard to think about … I’m only one person
This question becomes the catalyst for a discussion ... there are always things people, of whatever age can do, if they have the will.
People come back to me months after seeing 3000 days ... and counting ... to tell me that they still think about the messages embodied in The Scrolls and they are able to tell me what they are doing in response.
And that can only be good.
Messages
Using The Scrolls, I can talk with children and adults about a range of issues. Because I have recorded the stories behind each of the plants I have drawn, people can also learn more about the plants they observe on The Scrolls. There are a variety of takeaway messages from The Scrolls. People begin to
• appreciate that there is a lot in nature that they may not have considered before
• start to understand that even the most seemingly ordinary plants, animals and insects might be under threat because of the impact the changing climate and/or development is having in their local area
• learn that weeds might actually be good and useful plants
• appreciate that even introduced plants may now have a role to play in many environments – particularly where native vegetation has been cleared and local animals, insects, reptiles, and birds have had to adapt to new or introduced species for shelter and food
© Sharon Field. 3000 days ... and counting ...
Messages (cont.)
• be surprised and delighted to learn that we are still finding new species – of everything
• are devastated to hear about native plants, animals, insects, reptiles and birds that have become locally extinct, and the resultant flow on effects that has
• learn that a “green” environment is not necessarily a biodiverse environment
• learn that a tidy yard can often be sterile
• understand the difference between grass and lawn
• understand that we don’t have to control and micro-manage every aspect of the natural environment in which we live
• become more aware that we, along with plants, animals, insects and fungi all rely on each other – we can’t exist without them, but they would be very happy without us!
People are also very keen to find out what they can do to help.
Will all scrolls be the same? No!
This is Scroll #1. Biodiversity: nature’s embrace – rich and bold
The main subject matter – botanical subjects – will remain constant, but each scroll will have a different theme and will be presented differently.
© Sharon Field. 3000 days ... and counting ... at 26 January 2025
Subsequent scrolls have incorporated this graph prepared from NASA data, which show the increase in global temperatures from 1880 to 2020
Scroll #2 is called The bush whispers softly of changes profound
… the rising global temperature from the NASA graph, 1880 – 2020, has been incorporated into Scroll 2 © Sharon Field. 3000 days ... and counting ... at 26 January 2025
To the artwork
From the trigger
These stories lead on to discussions about what people see happening in their local areas, in whatever country they may live
People begin to realise that the hundreds of plants they see on the scroll are now at risk –even some of the very ordinary plants.
© Sharon Field. 3000 days ... and counting ... at 26 January 2025
Conclusion
3000 days … and counting … provides a basis for quite rich discussions about environmental issues in a nonthreatening way. The work is designed to be beautiful so that it draws people in, rather than repels them. People are usually very happy to talk about the issues and what more they can do.
As The Scrolls develop (I estimate there will be nine in all) each will have a theme threading through its length:
1: Biodiversity – nature’s embrace, rich and bold – the chaos and beauty of nature in its complexity (complete)
2: The bush whispers softly of changes profound –incorporating the rising global temperature, from 1880 – 2030. Based on NASA data, this information weaves through the plants (complete)
3: Nature trembles and sighs at the warming embrace –(complete)
4: A tale of our own making … once rich and bold
5: Species whisper their fading song
6: In carbon’s grasp, a deadly stroke
7. Climate’s rage disrupts the balance of life
8: Winds howl loud with a hotter breath
9: The spirit is in the soil – this scroll will include all those plants in Australia that are either extinct or critically endangered.
The visual message will become stronger as The Scrolls develop, because that is the reality. The drawings will remain beautiful and detailed, but there will be an increasing punch in the message as time goes on – there has to be. People need to be inspired to become part of a solution.
Art - in ALL its various forms can inspire viewers to reflect on their own role in fighting against climate change. Perhaps not entirely on its own; but it can help people understand the impact our actions have on the world.
Not everyone can be an activist, but that does not mean that they don’t care, or that they don’t want to do something.
No one knows what will happen next. Wherever we live, we have beneath our feet THE most precious object in the universe – a living, breathing, lifesustaining world.
Let’s at least try our best to look after our world.
What can we do to turn climate anxiety into positive action?
© Sharon Field. 3000 days ... and counting ... at 26 January 2025
