Each month, AFC recognizes an artist for their strong commitment to conservation through art. This month, AFC salutes Linda Dawn Lang.
AFC celebrates Linda Lang's work in climate change over the last two decades. Linda speaks internationally on climate change and the polar regions and supports the message with her unique artwork.
The majority of Linda's paintings tell the story of climate change and are based on her many expeditions to the polar regions and what she has learned from scientists and her Inuit friends.
Included among her initiatives and activities she:
- is the founder of Polar Artists Group which links polar artists and scientists by conservation and promoting awareness of the polar regions, and effects of climate change on the environment and people through art, education, and special projects,
- launched Polar Artists Group at McMichael Canadian Art Collection with invited guests Mary Simon and astronaut, Dr. Roberta Bondar,
- helped organize student Climate 4 Change workshops and exhibition at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection near Toronto as well as develop their Arctic Artist in school program,
- participated in many international exhibitions on climate change and the polar regions
- led artists trips to the Canadian Arctic
- organized the Arctic Circle of Friends Festival north of Toronto in 2009 which included youth forum on climate change and Inuit guests from the Canadian Arctic including students, as well as award-winning Inuit athlete Johnny Issaluk to share their experiences on how climate change is affecting life in the Arctic
- was Art Director on “Students on Ice” Climate Change expeditions,
- organized several climate change exhibitions,
- participated in Circumpolar Artists Round Table Discussions at United Nations Office, Geneva,
- represented artists at launch of International Polar Year, Paris France, 2007,
- represented Canada in Northern Lights Climbing Festival, Yamal, Siberia, 2008, 2009,
- presented her painting “When Mountains Cry Out” as part of North West Passage 100th anniversary permanent collection at the Vancouver Maritime Museum,
- presented her painting “Follow Your Dreams” to Ontario’s former Lieutenant Governor as part of TCDSB Arctic Festival,
- undertook over 14 expeditions to polar regions including Canadian Arctic, Greenland, Iceland, Siberia, and Antarctica from 2002 to present,
- director and founder of Arctic Quest project—group of 25 Canadian artists who celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Northwest Passage on a journey in 2006. This was followed by a year of international exhibitions.
Linda is a former board member of the Society of Canadian Artists, an elected Signature Member of Artists for Conservation, and founder of Polar Artists Group and the Arctic Quest 2006 project. Linda has taught art workshops for schools, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Students on Ice Climate Change expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctica, in Russia, and the United States. Linda has won several awards for her work which can be found in collections across Canada, United States, Russia, and England.
Linda’s painting has been described by Tom Smart, former CEO & President, McMichael Canadian Art Collection:
“Linda's paintings reflect a profound appreciation for Canada's High Arctic and the devastating effects of global warming on its fragile, yet extreme, ecosystem. Her paintings channel deeply felt experiences of travelling and working in the Arctic, feeling its raw, potent energy. They trace the direct connection she has for the land and its people. Through an iconography that is easily read and understood, Linda conveys a complex message and a warning that the human species is transgressing on nature's sublime, primordial skin with little regard for the consequences of our actions. Hers is an elegiac message, telling us of what is lost, and what is vanishing in this glorious creation.
Linda's art has the true power of conviction and direct expression. Experiential, her paintings lift the specifics of her journey through the spare, spiritual landscapes to a level of a human epic in search of a soul, vanishing as would a glacier under the warming breath of an invading civilization not attuned to the subtle harmonies and balances of life forms and natural habitat. “
