October 4 - 28 2022

I am doing an artist residency in the amazing nature reserve of the CPIE Littoral Basque in Hendaye (Basque Country, France), thanks to a partnership with this organization together with the Basque Cultural Institute, the Federation of Basque Writers and the Elkano Foundation, which celebrates 500 years since the Basque explorer Juan Sebastian Elkano sailed around the world.

The story of Elkano inspired me to write a contemporary interpretation of his discoveries. During my residency, I aim to write and illustrate a story for small children. It's about a little girl, not dissimilar to my own children, who lives in northern Nevada, an area of high desert and sierras, where wildnerness still abounds, but which is steadily being encroached by urban sprawl. Unlike Elkano, this little girl knows the world is round – her parents explained it to her. Often, at the end of a day typically spent playing by the Truckee river, she likes to contemplate the sun as it sets behind the mountains, receding to the West. She also knows that the world is small – she's already taken the plane high up into the sky and flown some hours, to go visit her mother's family in the Basque Country. And she knows too that many  animals and plants are endangered because of the behavior of human beings. She feels a pinch to her heart every time she thinks about it, and often contemplates what she can do to make a difference.

In my story of this child who discovers her own place and purpose in the world, I evoke the juxtaposition of two public figures- Elkano and Greta Thunberg  - and their contrasting epistemologies. Today, with Greta Thunberg, there is not only the knowledge that the world is round but finite, and fragile. Today is also a secular age, whereby we do not necessarily believe destiny and fate are in the hand of a God – they can be in our own hands – responsibility can lie with the self – the individual and the human collective. 500 years ago, Elkano had no choice but to cross the seas on a wind-propelled ship, while Thunberg, in 2019, made the point of travelling via minimally carbon-emitting modes of transport to attend climate conferences in America and to return to Sweden. The time of Elkano was one of exploration, accomplice to efforts to discover and colonize; our time in the 21st century, with the inspiring figure of Thunberg and other young people, is one of the urgency to care and fight for social, economic and environmental justice. 

The protagonist in my story is a product of globalization, kickstarted by Elkano's achievement. She is born to parents of different origins, in a different place, has traveled across the globe by plane, feeds comfortably on food and information from all corners of the planet, and is a witness to climate collapse – the radical decrease of biodiversity with pollution and destruction by human beings. How can and how does a child today make sense of its existence and purpose in today's world ? How does it consider its impact and that of its community on the environment ? And what importance should be attached to identity? I want this story to bring up these important philosophical questions for young people growing up today, but also have this story be one of hope and empowerment. It aims to inspire a re-discovery as well as a renewed awe for beauty and adventure that can still exist in the world.