Zaria Forman Documents Climate Change in Her Pastel Drawings

Zaria Forman is a New York-based artist who dedicated much of her art career to documenting climate change. She captures the beauty of vulnerable landscapes through a series of captivating pastel drawings, wanting to raise awareness about their endangerment.

Forman’s works mainly focus on polar ice caps, glaciers, icebergs, and raging waters of the Arctic Ocean. The focal point isn’t the effects that climate change had on these landscapes. The artist rather strives to show their beauty so the viewers are aware of what’s at stake.

“I draw as much precise detail as I can in order to transport the viewer to a place that is otherwise distant and abstract,” Forman shared with The New York Times. “I convey the beauty of these vulnerable landscapes, as opposed to their devastation, to inspire viewers to help protect and preserve them.”

Searching for inspiration, Forman travels to remote regions of the world to see them in person. While there, she admires the fragile beauty and collects photographs to use as a reference in her work. Some of the regions Forman visited include Antarctica, Greenland, and Arctic Canada as part of NASA’s Operation IceBridge missions.

You can check out more of Forman’s pastel drawings by scrolling below.