Fibonacci Footprint, featuring work by Cara Jaye, leaves an Impression at Bellevue College

Ten Northwest artists explore global warming through paintings, sculpture, installation and video, each focusing on varying topics of climate concern: rising water, food systems, colonization, environmental pollution, and microplastics. The exhibition "Fibonacci Footprint" runs from February 9 through April 11 at Bellevue College Gallery Space this winter. The exhibit provides insight into the causes of global warming and what we can do to help heal the planet.

Professor of Art Cara Jaye is one of the ten featured artists.

The Fibonacci sequence is a mathematical phenomenon found in nature that has captivated the human eye and imagination for millennia. Its structure underlies patterns in everything from plant growth to musical compositions, it's even woven throughout the human body. Its spiral form can also be used to describe the trajectory of an exponentially-expanding climate problem spiraling out of control. As the intertwined engines of capitalism and colonialism have wrought unchecked havoc on earth in recent centuries, we now find ourselves awash in the palpable effects of global warming.

"Fibonacci Footprint" approaches this new reality through the lens of art. Artists can say what scientists can’t. They bring feeling to the facts, translating data into knowledge, which in turn empowers change. This exhibit unpacks the difficult data, each work the result of thoughtful research aligned with passionate feeling. Some works were built through ongoing dialogue between artists and biologists, geologists and psychologists, some done in active collaboration with these scientists.

Rather than leave a sense of helplessness in their wake, the works ultimately offer a re-centering of agency. Corporations are not the only agents of action; the impact of individual actions are exponential as well. Healing also spirals outward. As the impacts of climate change infiltrate all aspects of society and everyday life, may our efforts equally expand in answer, and ripple ever outward, toward change.

Plan your visit to Fibonacci Footprint

The exhibit location is the Bellevue College Gallery Space (D271) located next to the library on the second floor of Building D.

An opening reception will be held on Thursday, February 15 from 4 to 7 p.m., and a closing reception on Thursday, April 11 from 4 to 7 p.m.

Gallery Hours: Monday 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., Wednesday 1 to 7 p.m., Thursday 12 to 2:15 p.m., Friday from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and by appointment.

Parking is available in Visitors Lot 12. A Bellevue College campus map can be found here.

Image

"Particles #1" (left) and "Particles #2" (right), Cara Jaye, 2023. Each: 44" x 30", cyanotype with encaustic on panel.