Pandora’s Trojan Horse; Exploring Issues around Climate Change
(Read Margot’s writings on each piece of the series on her website here:)
Artists Statement
“Pandora’s Trojan Horse; Exploring Issues around Climate Change,” is a series that grew both out of love of this wonderful planet we call home, and fear for the future of our world as we currently know it. The Horse draws inspiration from Greek Mythology, as well as Judaeo-Christian Religion. Pandora, in Greek mythology, opened a jar and released all of the evils into the world, just as pollutants are being released now. The Trojan Horse represents the threat of Climate Change, hidden behind the benefits of industrial expansion. The devil’s horns, tail, and cloven hooves, as well as a map of the world complete the facade of this magnificent Horse Chimera, which on the outside looks wonderful, but contains a hidden threat. The prosperity and benefit of industrial growth, which does not factor in the high environmental cost, have fallen largely to the financial elite, and politically powerful. The price of our changing climate, and environmental degradation will be paid for by everyone else, and will hit hardest among the poor, and in the less developed countries. Some estimates put the cost we are paying today for climate change caused droughts, storms, floods, rising sea levels, melting permafrost, heat waves and fires globally at 1.2 Trillion dollars a year. Climate Change will increasingly affect the bottom line for economies and food supplies worldwide.
Many people believe that there are more pressing priorities than climate change, and while I agree that there are a lot of important issues facing humanity today, each and every one of these issues will be exacerbated if we reach the tipping point on Climate change. In the earth’s distant past, CO2 or greenhouse gasses were buried with the detritus and eventually became today’s fossil fuels such as coal, gas, and oil. Every year we are burning fossil fuels which took 3 million years to accumulate and releasing into the atmosphere all the greenhouse gasses that these fossil fuels contained. Most of the “alarmist scientist’s” predictions about Climate Change from the past, have proven over time, to be too modest.
Each painting and serigraph in my “Pandora’s Trojan Horse; Exploring Issues around Climate Change” series is dealing with a separate area of environmental concern, although like the environment itself they are all interwoven. While I have a definite bias towards preserving a livable planet for our children, I work hard to get my facts as accurate as I am able. I extensively research every topic I create an artwork from, following it from the corporate and government side, as well as from an environmental prospective. My best analysis of the situation is that money and power spread a thin veneer of truth, over a bubbling cauldron of omission. My goal through my art is not to turn people off and have them walk away, but rather to draw the viewer in and make them think. My paintings and serigraphs are meant to be pleasant to look at, but with an underling impact. Through my art I hope to be one more voice arguing that it is time to save the planet as we know it now, for our children and our grandchildren.
I believe that a deeply felt emotion is always the best source to draw inspiration from when creating a work of art. I have gravitated towards Acrylic Painting for most of the pieces in this series. The topic itself demands accuracy from me, and I feel the control I have with the acrylic medium suits my need to be precise and on point with the message contained in my artworks. All of my “Pandora’s Trojan Horse” paintings and serigraphs have an accompanying write up (available on my web site) describing my thoughts on why the subject in the artwork, is of concern both to the local environment, but also for Global Climate Change. I have felt compelled to make these writeups available as an accompany for this exhibit, for anybody who wants to dig deeper. I believe it is only through generating discussion and concern that people will be compelled to force governments and industry around the world to take action.
Artist Biography
Margot was born and raised in Saint John, New Brunswick. She graduated from Mount Allison University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree. Following graduation she decided to pursue her art full time Margot has gone on to exhibit her work around the world, participating in 123 International Exhibits, almost all of them Juried Competitions, in 15 different countries, including shows throughout Canada and the United States, as well as shows in Greece, Germany, Bulgaria, India, Spain, Australia, Poland, England, Turkey, Mexico, France, Romania, and the United Arab Emirate. Margot has won 15 awards for her artwork at international competitions.
Margot has also had 41 solo exhibitions, including shows in Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and on the U.S. Virgin Islands. She also participates in numerous local, regional, provincial and National shows. Margot is currently preparing for solo exhibitions at the Moonbeam Art Gallery in Moonbeam, in 2019, and at the Saint John Arts Centre, in Saint John NB in 2019. Margot won first prize in a Northern Ontario Art Association exhibition which has spent the last year touring Northern Ontario. She is also part of an 8 Person collective called Portraits North of 17, which is mounting a Group Exhibition to tour around Northern Ontario.
In 1987 Margot married Bruce Splane, they have three children. In 2001 the family relocated to Timmins Ontario. Margot works on her acrylic paintings and collages in the winter and on her serigraph prints in the summer. Margot pulls all of her serigraphs by hand.
While at University, Margot studied under David Silverberg, and Thaddeus Holownia. She also received technical advice from artists Alex Colville, Ken Danby, Lindee Climo, and Fred Ross.
Margot has been elected as a member of the Federation of Canadian Artists and the Society of Canadian Artists.