![]()
Vanitas V. Regan Rosburg. 3D Resin painting (detail). Found plastic, wasp nests, wolf spider, lizard, paint, wood, resin. 30 x 35 x 5 inches. 2017. Permanent collection: Le Meridian Hotel, Denver, CO.
Who I Am
As an artist, my work blurs the boundary between nature and consumer culture. The Arctic is an intersection of these two things because it is ground zero for climate change, warming faster than anywhere else on the planet. Even more shocking, this remote area is seeing an influx of plastics carried north by currents.
My work is heavily influenced by both climate change and plastic, so I am compelled to explore this region. I intend to bring what I gain back to my work, my college students, and my community.
The Project
I will be a participant in the The Arctic Circle residency program. Aside from absorbing the beauty of this exquisite landscape, I will do research for two simultaneous projects. One involves Emiliania Huxlyei, a microscopic coccolithophore (see image below) moving north due to warmer temps. The other involves marine plastic that has literally been carried to the ends of the Earth via the Thermohaline current.
In preparation for my journey, I have met with scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), The University of Colorado, Bigelow Labs (Michigan), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
On the trip, I plan to write, photograph, film and record. I will scout and collect samples of plastics from the icy shores and water, as well as samples that may contain EHux. I am also hoping to meet with scientists at a few labs in Svalbard (NyAlesund and Longyearbyen).
I firmly believe that art is a crucial part of the conversation on climate change. By contributing to this project, you are connecting me directly to scientists and artists who are working diligently to help ameliorate these issues, and who are inspired by the Arctic. You are also placing me in a uniquely stunning landscape where art and science intersect.
![]()
Emiliania Huxlyei, photographed with Electron Scanning Microscope. http://www.mikrotax.org/Nannotax3/index.php?tax...
What I Need & What You Get
I am hoping to raise money to help cover the cost of the residency itself ($6500), some final cold-weather clothing items I still need ($500), and cover the shipment of plastics/samples back to the USA ($500).
For your contributions, I am offering art prints, handmade jellyfish pendants, and even a few unique resin sculptures and paintings at a discounted price!
I have been funding this trip ahead of time (privately and through donations), so any money collected will offset the overall costs of this trip -- even if I do not reach my goal.
![]()
These handmade Jellyfish Pendants are actually 3D miniature resin paintings. Get your own as a perk for supporting my journey!
The Impact
By contributing to this campaign, you are investing in my education, my cross-disciplinary collaboration, and the hands-on field research that informs my work. In this trip, nature and culture once again overlap; plastic is my symbolic metaphor for humanity's manic state, and a tiny EHux phytoplankton represents the briliance and deep history of our planet.
In the past I have created works with plastic materials to point out the magnitude of our choices. The 3.2 tons of black recycled HDPE pellets in Omega showed how one American's annual average plastic bottle purchases added to the overall global consumption. Projects like The Relentless Memorial provided a place to contemplate and mourn our planetary losses.
My interests have expanded beyond my own work to include others. I have done this by inviting artists to comment on aspects of EcoPsychology in curated exhibitions like Axis Mundi, by participating in conferences like the Thinker's Lodge in Nova Scotia, and by co-creating the Cayo art/science residency in Eleuthera so that more artists may learn from each other.
I promise you this: your contribution will spawn large, thoughtful projects like these, dedicated to a careful consideration of our place in the world and resulting in evocative, knowledgeable, honest artwork about what is at stake.
Omega. Regan Rosburg. Sculptural installation with 87 million recycled pellets, recycled and virgin plastic cast wings, antlers, wolf spider, cicadas, resin, wasp nest, paint, wood, dog skull, silk flowers. 50 x 50 x 10 feet. 2017.
Other Ways You Can Help
Want to help me, but cannot contribute financially? Please share this campaign with your fellow concerned activists, art lovers, and science nerds! I would be eternally grateful!
You can link to my website here, and follow my adventure on Instagram here! I am not on Facebook, but feel free to share my project there if you like! Thank you!!!
About the Artist
Regan Rosburg (b. 1977) received her MFA from Lesley University College of Art and Design (2016), and her BFA at the University of Colorado at Boulder (2000). She is an artist, curator, and professor. She currently teaches at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design. Her commitment to environmental causes is evident in her poignant artistic imagery, talks, and writing. Rosburg will be a 2019-2021 Artist in Resident at Redline in Denver, and is the co-founder and artistic director of Cayo Artist Residency in Eleuthera, Bahamas. She has exhibited her work nationally since 2006, and is represented by William Havu Gallery in Denver, Colorado. Her research has been published in the IGI International Journal of Civic Engagement and Social Change, and she has been featured in Truthout, CPR News Radio, The Westword, The Shambhala Times (Canada), and the Denver Post.
![]()
