Kim Curtis
(Painting and Drawing 2003)
Climate Valkyrie
Inspired by Greta Thunberg and her opera diva mother, I assembled this Wagnerian homage from landfill: Amazon.com helmet, newspaper-bags shaped into horns with package strapping, braids of grocery plastic, and bows from a birthday celebrant's cast-off gold balloon! I then joined hundreds of plain-clothed activists in Springfield, IL to lobby for the Clean Energy Jobs Act. This crucial legislation still awaits Governor Pritzker's signature despite its predecessor's proven success in bringing good-paying jobs in renewable energy directly to low-income communities throughout Illinois. (As it turns out, climate justice is also racial justice!) Humans and non-humans across our suffering planet require us to finally get this right. Let us stop digging like filthy Niebelungen and cast our eyes to Froh and Loge, the Gods of Sun and Fire!