Beetle Kill:  Symptom or Disease? (2023)

“All of this is infected; we just don’t see it yet.” 

This is how a local forest service manager described the forest to me as we surveyed the horizon from Monarch Pass, CO. Just a few years later, 90% of these trees have died from a small, native insect named the Spruce Beetle. 

The climate crisis is often invisible. We don’t see 2 degrees of warming or notice the increase in carbon dioxide. Beetle kill, however, presents a moment of seeing: an indicator, perhaps a symptom pointing to a larger disease?

Beetle Kill: Symptom or Disease? is a public art project commissioned by University of Colorado Boulder’s CASE Fellowship that explores the cascading impacts and underlying conditions of beetle kill on Monarch Pass. Through collaboration with CU Boulder ecologists and local forest experts, the resulting artwork translates scientific research and interdisciplinary questions into visual form. 

The project consists of eight pieces in two sets (not all pieces are shown here), each taking a different perspective and aesthetic/material approach to explore this surprisingly complex issue. The artwork was created to be displayed in various public buildings including the Colorado State Capital and public libraries around the state, particularly in rural counties. I’m interested in how each of these pieces can operate on their own (differently), while also building a more collective and accessible conversation and understanding.

While the project explores the impacts of a specific beetle in a specific location in a specific time, it is also an invitation to consider what lies beyond what we currently see. 


Commissioned by: The University of Colorado Boulder’s CASE Fellowship

To see and learn more: www.casefellows.buffscreate.net



Set 1 | Set 2



Set 2:  Data-Centric Pieces

This work was created to share scientific research and to provide a baseline of knowledge and understanding. 



Horizon
20” x 10’
Archival pigment prints of medium and large format film
2023


The images in Horizon depict the views seen by locals 
as they drive through Monarch Pass. The work is meant to provide a shared experience of what is seen.


Footnotes
20” x 30” & 8” x 30”
Scanned Slides , walnut frame
2023


Drawing from the Colorado State Forest Services’ “Spruce Beetle Fact Sheet,” this artwork reinterprets the scientific data and text into visual form. The bottom frame of images serves as photographic footnotes, much like those in scholarly texts, offering key information and context about the spruce beetle, such as the beetle’s size and reproduction cycle, its complex ecological relationships, and the cascading impacts of it’s activity in the wider community.  
Footnotes (detail)

While only a sample of the footnotes are included here, an accompanying website hosts the full compendium of these notes and offers additional critical commentary through annotated observations and questions.  

This artwork, is an opportunity to dive below the surface.
Spectrum of Infection  -  40” x 8”
Walnut frame, paint color chip cards
2023


The parallel spectrums in this artwork represent the change in color experienced by both spruce trees and beetles during an infestation. The upper spectrum illustrates the color of tree needles as they fade from dark green to grey, while the lower spectrum demonstrates the beetle’s color as it matures from larvae to adult form. These shifts in color happen simultaneously as nutrients are channeled from the tree to the beetles. 

Feedback Loops - 30” x 30” each
Sun 600 Polaroids
2023

This artwork is a polaroid collage exploring the cyclical processes in forest ecology. It is an acknowledgement that things are deeply interconnected—from the underground mycelium networks that trees use to communicate with one another to how cultural relationships to the natural world impact collective perception.

Thinking about feedback loops, even when the points of connection are out of sight.