THE RAINDANCE by db Waterman

How climate change contributes to drought: Warmer temperatures increase evaporation, reducing surface water and drying out soils and vegetation. As a result, periods with little precipitation are drier than in cooler conditions. Climate change is also changing the timing of water availability.

For this young girl, it might still be fun to play on dry patches of ground that resemble tiles. But what does the future hold for her? What impact will climate change have on her?

Acrylic on canvas

This artwork is offered by db Waterman

I remembered that as a young girl I so much liked to cut images from magazines to paste them into school agendas, scrapbooks and even on my bedroom door. Add to this the fascination I always had for walls filled with old posters, flaking paint, scrappy billboards and weathered paint, it opened an unexpected door for completely new opportunities. Completely unintended I found a new way of working, I felt pleasurably and comfortably at home in. What started out as copying old walls with worn out posters has grown into many series of new visual storytelling. Not simply just eclecticism, but bringing together many seemingly incoherent story lines into one completely new story, my own personal story. Initially it lacked the one thing that is important to me, the transparency that normally only is possible with the use of watercolor. The unforgiving layering of transparent watercolors is a challenge I would not want to miss and after a lot of trial and error I finally succeeded in getting the collages as transparent as a watercolor. Every layer of paper, oil, acrylic, pencil, crayon, ballpoint, watercolor, ink, charcoal and whatever else I use, remains visible in the artwork. You can imagine it made me feel the queen of the ball !

Learn more about db Waterman?

• All artworks by db Waterman
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