Fiber artist and painter, Jamie Bourgeois examines the impacts of human interactions within natural ecosystems. Born in Southeast Louisiana, she grew up in a family with a tradition of harvesting resources from the land, in an area now known as the petrochemical corridor or "Cancer Alley." This part of the country, steeped in paradox, is still, and always will be, “home.” Bourgeois’ multi-disciplinary works investigate and highlight the confluence of nature’s tides and man’s industry. She creates work with a goal to remind and raise awareness of the importance of protecting our native ecosystems. As all geo-systems interconnect, her process for creating these paintings and fiber-works is intentionally low impact, utilizing plants, insects and minerals as her dye sources. Jamie graduated from the Visual Arts program at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts in 2008. She received a BFA in Fibers from the Savannah College of Art & Design in 2012. Her studio is currently based in Atlanta, Georgia, where she also works as the gallery director of Spalding Nix Fine Art. Petrochemical PLANTS “Petrochemical PLANTS” is a series of mixed-media paintings that explore the pervasive and insidious nature of plastics and petrochemicals, as well as a deep love for the natural world. Textured, layered scenes of lush landscapes and dense native foliage, painted with earth pigment oil paints on wood panels, are adorned, surrounded, and smothered in assembled beads of discarded plastic. Raised in rural Southeast Louisiana along the Mississippi River, towering and winding structures of steel and PVC, bright fiery flairs that light up the night sky, dense morning fog, and intense pink and orange particulate sunsets were commonplace. As the area is drenched in petrochemical plants, it holds the nicknames ‘Cancer Alley,’ the ‘Chemical Corridor,’ a ‘sacrificial zone.’ As a multi-disciplinary artist, Jamie’s thoughtful ‘slow’ works examine the impacts of human interactions within native ecosystems and remind us of the importance of protecting that with which we are interconnected. Plastic Facts:Plastic pollution is cumulative in our bodies and in the environment. It is not biodegradable or beneficially cyclical and has a long lifespan of quietly off-gassing and leeching toxic chemicals into its surroundings. Ubiquitous, shape-shifting, and inescapable, plastic constitutes the majority of our packaging, clothing, electronics, toys, appliances, furniture, and a multitude of everyday objects. It has been found in nearly every ecosystem across the globe, even in places scarcely or not at all inhabited by humans; from the Arctic Circle to the deepest ocean trench. It has been found in raindrops, in the bellies of birds, and inside human organs, tissues, and blood. Produced on an escalating scale, plastics are made to be cheaply consumed, utilized temporarily, thrown away, and purchased repeatedly. Made from fossil fuels, the refining process produces hazardous waste in the form of air, land, and water pollution, with petrochemical plants predominantly located in low-income communities and communities of color. Several of the chemicals found in plastics and plastics production are known carcinogens and endocrine disruptors causing developmental, neurological, reproductive, and immune disorders in humans and wildlife. “All life on earth depends on regenerative cycles—an infinite number of beautifully wonky revolutions and webs that continue in perpetuity within us and all around us,” says Jamie. “Plastic and its compositions of chemicals disrupt, obstruct, and break those cycles. These paintings act as windows, as mirrors, as seeds–which systems do we want to protect and (how) do we want our future to grow?”