The power of the visual arts to mobilise action on climate change

She said: “The arts can play a big role in raising awareness and getting people engaged with the climate crisis.

“Data and statistics are crucial, but art has this amazing ability to communicate complex issues in the way that is emotional and easy to connect with. 

“It can make something like climate change more real and personal, rather than just looking at graphs and pie charts.

“As an artist you can graphically show the urgency of a situation and you can use your art to challenge people’s views which might encourage, hopefully someone to act.

“It can spark empathy, get people talking and help us think about the choices we make and our impact on the world. Art can be a catalyst for change.”

The multidisciplinary artist lives and works on Australia’s southeast coast on Merimbula Lake, hailed as the ‘Sapphire Coast’ of New South Wales. She uses painting, photography and digital media with impact.

In 2020 Katherine was selected to participate in OUTPUT: Art After Fire, an international pilot project funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade which supported artists from southeast Australia and the American West in creating works that reflect their bushfire experiences.

Her work has also been featured in global forums, including the DigitalArt4Climate Art Award at the 2021 United Nations Climate Conference in Glasgow and the Art Speaks Out Exhibitions at the 2022, 2023 and 2024 United Nations Climate Conferences in Egypt, Dubai and Azerbaijan.

In our podcast Katherine expresses how she felt during the Australian bush fires of 2019/20, known as the ‘forever fires’ which devastated the region.

Katherine explains how she didn’t see blue sky for six weeks.

She says this period marked a huge turning point in her life and work. She tells how tragically billions of native animals perished whilst at the same time talks of the resilience of the bush.

She said: “After the fires I wanted to do something with my art to raise awareness and poured all my shock and despair into my art.

“I want my work to celebrate the beauty of the natural world but also there is an underlying sense of despair in the work.

“I see all this natural beauty around me in the world, but I can’t help but think what would be lost if we don’t act to protect it.”

Katherine says she attempts to lure people into her detailed works by the beauty then finds it reveals an underlying climate message. She calls this ‘sneaky.’ – it’s certainly clever.

The artist is not afraid to directly confront viewers with tough messages. Her video shown at the UN climate conference in Azerbaijan, featured a future where humans are extinct and ocean life has disappeared.

These are hard messages to convey.

In late 2023, Katherine’s work, Fire Flower No. 8, created with fire itself, achieved global recognition when it was presented by the Australian Prime Minister as a gift to former US President Joe Biden at the White House during an official visit to Washington.

“I knew nothing about it; my sister called me and said your artwork is on the news on TV. I missed it,” she said.

“There it was, I knew nothing! 

“I was hoping, in my wildest dreams, I was hoping that the Australian Prime Minister giving that work to Joe Biden there would have been a conversation about climate change.”

Katherine has always been aware of her environment and even when her family first bought a 121-acre strip of land years ago, they had to build a home from scratch, using many natural materials.

However, the bush fires have certainly added to the artist’s concern about how we are treating our planet.

“I am just trying to do what I can do because after the bush fires I felt so helpless, and I felt what can I possibly do, and this was the only thing I could think of I could possibly do that would maybe make some tiny bit of difference.

“My work has been put out there on an international level, and I never ever dreamed that for a moment when I started making climate art all those years ago. That wants to make me keep going, because obviously it’s having some impact even if it’s only small.”

Katherine is evolving her work and has enjoyed a transition to the digital whilst also continuing to work with natural materials. Although in her own studio, she is happy to have less of a reliance on paints, canvases and solvents.

However, she would love to see world governments doing more on climate change and need everyone to be talking about it.

She added: “We need extreme measures, or we’re going to go backwards.”

For her own work she will continue to focus on the landscape and what is happening to our natural world.

She said: “You’re always after the holy grail as an artist, it’s a journey, it’s a longing, you are constantly pursuing something that feels just out of reach.

“The work you do, you’re springboarding off that thinking about the next work, I am always exploring new ways to express my thoughts and feelings, but I know I will never get there.

“There is always more to learn and create.”

This is perhaps the agony every artist faces – the pressure to create something lasting and with impact.

As German painter and sculptor Anselm Keifer has said: “Art is longing. You never arrive, but you keep going in the hope that you will.”