Mount Stone Glacier, 2023
Graphite, wildfire charcoal, and chalk on Westclox technical drawing 15” x 18 1/4
"My drawing of Mount Stone Glacier is a rumination on contemporary climate conditions that are driving the disappearance of the world’s glaciers, including those in Olympic National Park. This work seeks to highlight the connections between ice and fire and emphasize the larger, climate-change-driven transformations we are currently seeing in regard to drought and wildfires. It uses charcoal collected from a recent burn in the Pacific Northwest to underscore the connections, both literally and conceptually, between glaciers and wildfire. "Additionally, this work was made on a 1952 technical drawing for a Westclox timepiece, a substrate chosen to emphasize the anthropogenic, industrial factors that are exponentially worsening what would otherwise be natural climate cycles, and to stress the idea of time that underscores all the themes at work in this drawing." -Gisele Olson
Meet the artist: Gisele OlsonGisele Olson lives and works in western Wyoming, where she maintains a full-time studio practice focused on tapestry weaving, collage making, and drawing. She holds a master’s degree in English, and her background in the study of literature and ecocriticism centers her work at a crossroads of narrative, nature, and human experience. She is a recipient of a Wyoming Arts Council Professional Development Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for her collage series This America. Her work is held in private collections throughout the United States as well as in the permanent collection of MERZ Gallery in Sanquhar, Scotland. 
More about Mount Stone GlacierThe Mount Stone Glacier, or Snowfield, is a remnant cirque glacier beneath the steep spires of Mount Stone and above Hagen Lake. This is one of a few small glaciers that still feed the Duckabush River. The glacier has diminished greatly since this photo of unknown origins, was taken in the early 1900’s.
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Last updated: January 10, 2024