Franke James: Environmental Artist

Happy to announce that this Friday, June 1, at 9:20 I'll be interviewing Franke James, a unique and exciting voice in Canadian environmentalism. Franke combines her artwork, with photography and science to create visual essays that illustrate important environmental and social issues. The science in her visual essays is well-researched, the photographs can be devestating and the artwork... cheeky, spirited and fun!

All that is just part of what makes her essays an uplifting experience. These are tough subjects and in someone else's hands this could be a polemic or worse, depressing. However, her  simple, straight-foward story-telling style makes these visual essays rise above the tendentious.

All together, this allows her to tie complex issues together and weave a narrative that can be understood and appreciated by all as in her most recent essay, "What Is Harper Afraid Of?" Wherein she presents the issues related to the Alberta tar-sands, the proposed Enbridge pipeline that threatens a way of life for Canada's indigenous peoples and the eco-systems of the B.C. rainforest and coastline all for the benefit of foreign oil interests and the ideologues now in charge in Ottawa.

Ms. James' credits are long and they include being blacklisted by the democratically challenged Tories: She is also the author of two award-winning books, 'Bothered By My Green Conscience' and 'Dear Office-Politics.'  So go over to her site and get inspired; check out her 17 visual essays and pass them along to your friends, and don't forget to tune in Friday and try not to be surprised when you come away feeling more optimistic about all these issues than you did going in. The story of he blacklisting is below and a terrifc example of her storytelling. Cheers!