Deterioration is an emotional landscape and timeline detailing the gradual worsening of my grandmother, with whom I used to be extremely close before she started to lose her memory, balance, and love for life. This piece is constructed with three interconnected movements: (I) illustrates her prior, usual self where she was witty, active, social,

Deterioration is an emotional landscape and timeline detailing the gradual worsening of my grandmother, with whom I used to be extremely close before she started to lose her memory, balance, and love for life. This piece is constructed with three interconnected movements: (I) illustrates her prior, usual self where she was witty, active, social, and essentially had no filter (as grandparents tend to develop for better or for worse…); (II) frames the essence of her four-year deterioration and semi-spiraling into worse health; (III) reflects the present, where she lives in a nursing home.

A close family friend of mine lost her house to a demonic wildfire in California a few years ago. From devastation, they rebuilt not just their home, but their life. Her family learned along with others that their catastrophe was attributed to something beyond randomness or natural variation: the Earth’s climate is changing for the worse, and we

A close family friend of mine lost her house to a demonic wildfire in California a few years ago. From devastation, they rebuilt not just their home, but their life. Her family learned along with others that their catastrophe was attributed to something beyond randomness or natural variation: the Earth’s climate is changing for the worse, and we are a main driver of its deterioration. Our Living Planet speaks to the Earth as a living being, and destroying it will lead to our destruction. As we would hope to treat any person with respect, we must do the same with Earth, for it provides us with life and sustains our communities. Instead, our planet is burning alive and trying to survive, as we continue to test its limits whose outcomes we ultimately fear in our lack of comprehension and preparedness for what the future holds. We are playing with fire, and causing it too.