OCEANSIDE – A new exhibit at the Oceanside Museum of Art explores what is at stake as the globe’s climate changes at an increasingly rapid rate.
Connie Jenkins’ “Intertidal” exhibit, which opens on May 13 and runs until Aug. 13, features a collection of work inspired by the artist’s 13 years spent living on the Channel Islands off the coast of Southern California, bringing greater awareness to the value of these seldom-seen habitats.
In 2005, Jenkins was one of 20 artists selected to spend a year visiting the Channel Islands and making artwork to be exhibited by the Ventura County Museum upon the 25th anniversary of the Channel Islands National Park. She continued to visit the islands over the next 13 years as a volunteer with the intertidal monitoring survey team, the park’s natural resources specialist and with Channel Island Restoration.
When the pandemic hit, Jenkins remained and explored all eight islands in over two dozen paintings.
“My time there – freezing wet, knee deep in tidepools or picking weeds from wee pots of dudleyas, and planting out oak seedlings in 35 mph winds – was the experience of a lifetime,” Jenkins said. “The chance to sit and observe day after day in that isolated environment, largely distant from human habitation, provided the opportunity to imagine this environment before mankind’s mark.”
When she returned home, she continued to paint images of the tidepools from photographs she had taken during her time there as a form of daily meditation.
Jenkins’ collection of work from her time at the Channel Islands at the Oceanside Museum of Art showcases the islands’ unique environment despite humanity’s footprint elsewhere. She hopes that her artwork will help bring greater awareness to the value of these seldom-seen habitats, inspiring a sense of responsibility for their protection and preservation.
“The places in my paintings exist in spite of our careless disregard,” she said. “Fragile and impervious, enduring and threatened, gaudy and subtle, disappearing and recovering – these waters are a template of our own existence.”
Oceanside Museum of Art is a nonprofit organization that began providing exhibitions and public programs in 1995 as part of its mission to bring people together to explore the art and stories of Southern California artists. OMA’s programming includes youth education programs, adult art classes, concerts, films and events for both the local community and visitors.
