A Sacred Balance
An Artist’s Statement
We are integral members in life’s web of survival. This web’s one essential principle is dependent on diversity, both biological and cultural. Evolution has sharpened us to thrive alongside the millions of other creatures that share our planet. Our sharpening process has been so successful that the human population has exploded and our quest for sustenance has risen to such a level that we have created a stranglehold on the earth’s natural productivity level. The restriction of natural resources results in the deprivation of other species and leads eventually to their demise. Earth’s productive capacity is restricted when biodiversity is lost to the draining of wetlands, damming of river systems, clear cutting of huge forests, oil spills, and disasters such as Chernobyl and Bhopal.
Although species formation uses extinction as an evolutionary tool, we have killed off species at an unprecedented rate. Certain species such as the Monarch Butterfly act as an “indicator species” for the planet’s state of health. The loss of such indicators should alarm us to the fact that the earth’s condition is deteriorating. It is too late for those already extinct; they are gone forever, but with unbroken changes in our behavior, surviving species do stand a chance. If properly stimulated, the environment will support natural processes of regeneration. Our attitude will be the most crucial change in the end. We are the caretakers of a sacred balance.
