My latest long term project addresses the twin theme of climate and biodiversity crisis affecting everyone on the planet.
Far off catastrophes fail to galvanise action or even register with governments, business or most people, while closer to home a spate of wildfires, floods, record heat waves, disrupted weather patterns, and threats to food supplies prompting government alerts still fail to awaken any sense of alrm at the impending national (and international) emergency we are facing.
Even then nature and all the living beings in nurtures, hardly gets a second thought as we content ourselves, or maybe discontent ourselves, with the latest technological transformations we can create that further distance the human species from the real world.
My work seeks to help to reconnect us human beings with all the other beings and both highlight threatened species facing imminent extinction, and reinforce the challenge to arrest and restore biodiversity loss in the climate emergency we all face.
The Ark Project extends an invitation to each and every one of us to realize this increasing threat to nature at home and throughout the world, and to choose a species to ‘stand beside’ in an expression of concern and solidarity with all forms of natural life that face potential extinction (which may ultimately include ourselves).
Image above: This year I heard the horrifying true story of a stag on fire as he emerged from a forest blaze in the West Highlands of Scotland.
Species chosen for the Ark – We Stand Beside project are represented in vast pastel mural and many are depicted in alternative media – charcoal, pastel, etching, linocut and sketches.
More works, some exhibited at my last exhibition at The Barn, Banchory, in the Spring. can be viewed on the gallery page. {NB Insert link to gallery page}
Image above: Flight to the ark – charcoal on bamboo paper
I’m working on extending the Tree of Life pastel mural possibly as wide as seven metres to be exhibited along with other works at the Dundreggan Rewilding Centre in Glen Moriston in March/April 2027.
Originally this continuing project was conceived in the lockdown days of the Covid pandemic in 2020. As the earth seemed to stand still, all manner of creatures began to show their faces – no longer deterred by human hustle and bustle. But there were far fewer than I remembered in my childhood. I was shocked to realise the full extent of the decline in species over the past half century detailed in the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Living Planet report in 2024. I couldn’t comprehend the lack of concern among many humans at the loss of three quarters of other ‘beings’ with which we share the planet.
The idea that we might face a purely technological future – a sterile world without nature and the ecosystems it supports – filled and fills me with horror.
Everyone is familiar with the tale of Noah’s ark echoing the ancient Sumerian flood story. I began to think about a 21st century ark, but wondered what creatures would be left to rescue in the future. as we witness the insatiable demand for development wrecking the planet. Now in addition there is the inexplicable urgency to build a legion of hyperscale datacentres and the infrastructure to provide the vast energy and water required to enable a digital alien ‘intelligence’ to dominate and perhaps even threaten our very existence at the very moment when climate catastrophes threaten to decimate biodiversity if not make life impossible leading to extinction for many tens of thousands of creatures.
In 2024 I first met kindred spirits in the founders of the Oxford based non-profit I Stand Beside, and subsequently accepted their invitation to join them as a co-founder on a mission to inspire as many of us as possible to ‘stand beside’ the unseen and unheard creatures of our planet. The goal is to sew the seeds of a global movement for nature-positive culture and behaviour.
I seized the opportunity to express support by filling the Ark metaphorically with threatened species chosen and adopted by a diverse and growing range of people – from a few well known celebrities, scientists and all of us including children. Everyone is encouraged to register at the same time with the I Stand Beside (istandbeside.life) website where they can name their chosen species, write a few paragraphs about the reason for their choice, and be part of the growing momentum to do something to save threatened species and the planet.
The I Stand Beside initiative, now registered charity number 1217230, is spearheaded by Prof Nathalie Seddon, professor of biodiversity at Oxford University and eco-designer John-Paul Frazer. Developing a user-friendly interactive website, it aims to engage with everyone concerned with biodiversity loss and the need to take effective action immediately to protect all forms of life on earth.
Click on the logo below to go to the website:
