INTERDEPENDENCE is a thoughtful visual art exhibition embracing our relationship to endangered species, climate change, and our environment. It includes poignant paintings by Robin Jones and exciting new works by Erin Schulz. Contemporary sculptor Warren Pope is exhibiting his large minimalist designs as well as co-create a few collaborative new works with eco advocate painter Britt Freda who is showing her new collection of orca paintings. Rounding out this captivating collection are vibrant, sea life prints by artist/writer Josie Iselin.

INTERDEPENDENCE— because we need each other.

The theme of this exhibition was inspired by the integration of art, science and activism, scheduled to coincide with Endangered Species Day, May 15th. The exhibition was conceived in the Fall of 2019, long before COVID. However, the concept of “Interdependence” is glaringly more evident as we face the pandemic.

INTERDEPENDENCE— we need each other.

The news and social media are filled with stories of people coming to the aide of others, as well as exposing how one’s action can harm many. The universal consciousness of our Interdependence – with each other, with nature, with other beings – is expanding and deepening.

INTERDEPENDENCE— we need each other.

Within the awareness is greater compassion and appreciation for science that explains and quantifies this interdependence. “Ecological science focuses attention on relationships. It reveals that organisms are not only mutually related; they are also mutually defining. A species is what it is because of where and how it lives. From an ecological point of view, a species is the intersection of a multiplicity of stands in the web of life. It is not only located in its context, it is literally constituted by its context.” – Baird Callicott, an American philosopher whose work has been at the forefront of the new field of environmental philosophy and ethics.

INTERDEPENDENCE— we need each other

This exhibit honors Nature, in all its wildness and wonder… and preciousness. As we move through the current pandemic in gratitude and appreciate for life in all forms, we see and feel more clearly Nature’s value system that each individual species is part of the whole – interdependent and needed by each other.

Artists: Robin Jones (Vashon to Santa Fe), Erin Schulz (Vashon). Warren Pope (Seattle), Britt Freda(Vashon), and Josie Iselin (“The Curious World of Seaweed”, San Francisco).