This painting is bigger than me, and it’s uncanny seeing my daughter looming above me. This was intentional, because I wanted viewers to see what children see when they look up at us. I think sometimes we forget how much bigger we are, and what that is like for the small humans in our lives.

As a mom with three children to guide through the world, I spend a lot of time mulling over the future that is getting passed along to them. They and their peers will be responsible for the environmental harm we cause, and the generations before us. They will need to work through the aftermath of social conflict, resolve generational curses, and learn to exist in fragile ecosystems caused by mass extinction. Yet children are absolutely powerless over the decisions we make. All they can do is stand watch.

Sentinel 2 speaks to plastic pollution. There is so much plastic waste on this earth, with more produced every day. The mindset of letting the next generation figure it out has consequences, and it is our children and theirs who are left to shoulder the burden.