I attempted to illustrate 5 phases in colonization, particularly in the destruction it wreaks, while emphasizing that colonization is still alive and well today, pervading all aspects of life. Every painting has 2 common motifs that tie them all together: a juxtaposition somewhere of red, white, and blue, and cracks forming in the surrounding land and/or structures. The cracks symbolize uncontrollable violence; the red, white, and blue symbolize America’s involvement.

Each illustration contains a line of what started to read like a poem or picture book: “(1) So often, it starts with a man planting a flag. (2) Soon, exclusionary behaviors begin and hierarchy forms. When it has to, it adapts, but it’s always there. Those on the other end of power are vilified, dehumanized, ostracized. Every time. (3) And some, I imagine, are good people. (4) Natural resources are exploited, not respected. Not that the conquerors would be caught dead in the mess they made. Still, the survivors stand. (5) Nature reclaims, but it doesn’t know quite where to draw the line. Too bad we didn’t either.”

These illustrations are so entirely from my own viewpoint as a white settler. I feel like I am witnessing so much horror – much of which is probably not going to effect me directly within my lifetime, but everyone has to try to feel these things. Everyone has to put themselves on the line. It’s so hard to know where to begin.

These paintings are supposed to show that coloniality is not over, but extant; not sporadic, but continually with us, always reinventing itself for tomorrow. It’s not always easy for people to recognize. The violence that manifested historically as genocide on this continent and still does today also masquerades as fear for cis women’s safety in public restrooms they share with trans women, as hatred and indifference toward those who attempt to cross the US border (the third image contains a direct quote from the announcement of Trump’s candidacy which quickly devolved into a rant against Mexican immigrants), in the water crisis, and in the environmental crisis.

Something I think about quite a lot: I’ve never been to Europe, but one thing that always strikes me in photos and film is that Europe seems to have a crazy amount of old-growth forests. More than a few European forests have been designated as World Heritage Sites. Which is great… for Europe’s trees. We don’t have old-growth forests around here. And it’s not because North American trees are less hardy. It’s because North American trees have to completely start over every five minutes. And it’s people of European descent who do the clear-cutting here because this land is not sacred to the descendants of colonizers. It has utterly permeated the culture that this land is disposable, a final phase in the theft of whole continents.

I feel like we are watching the planet die. Albatrosses are an easy way to show that because they are literally full of safety razors and bottle caps. Colonization is like a creature devouring itself; it has one hell of a shelf life, but eventually, even centuries in, it just isn’t sustainable.