Friday, October 9, 2015

A visual art project at Walden Pond


Posted by Lucy Zipf

On a beautiful September Sunday at Walden Pond, Richard and Dan Primack and I met Amy Howden-Chapman, a New Zealand artist who has recently relocated to Connecticut. Amy produces visual art pieces that detail anthropogenic change in our world in a manner that she describes as “more poetic and less documentary based.”

Amy interviewing Richard at historic Walden Pond

Amy’s current project examines the effects of a warming climate on Walden Pond and its surroundings, which she read about in Richard’s book Walden Warming. The goal is to encourage viewers to see examples of climate change in the plants and animals of their immediate environment, not just in far-away images of melting glaciers and hungry polar bears.

Amy and Richard at the site of Thoreau's cabin

We spent several hours walking along the trails surrounding the pond and talking about the changes we have already observed and that we expect to see in the coming years. We focused especially on invasive plant species and their competitive advantages over native species.

We look forward to seeing Amy’s project. Her completed works are available on her website:


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