“Economic growth and the exploitation of nature have long gone hand-in-hand, but they now constitute the most ill-fated of bedfellows. Climate change, the greatest threat of our time, is the definitive manifestation of the well-worn links between progress and devastation. And as we continue to shamble towards a tipping point from which any meaningful return will be utterly impossible, a familiar message rings out from the corporate world: ‘business as usual’.” –Christopher Wright & Daniel Nyberg, Climate Change, Capitalism & Corporations

As I stand over my sink and enter my third minute vigorously scrubbing a tremendously oily empty jar of peanut butter so that I can recycle it in good faith, I look down at the streaky piece of plastic in my hands and find myself wondering, just for a second, “is this worth it?”. Of course, the answer is yes. As a population greater than our Earth can sustain, it is important that we as individuals do our part to minimize its (further) damage. But, this painting is not about that. It is about that moment of helplessness one might feel as an individual in the Anthropocene opposed to multi-billion dollar conglomerate corporations that continuously choose corporate interest over the environment; capital over our future; greed over love. It is about the way this can make a person feel small and their efforts even smaller. It is about the way that we will not see measurable change in our environment until major companies are truly held responsible for their environmental impact. I just wonder, will they? I will ponder this question as I watch the oceans turn from blue to black.