Looking at the Masters: Zaria Forman by Beverly Hall Smith

Zaria Forman studied and received her BS degree from Skidmore College in 2006, where she made large pastel drawings of “tumultuous skies”.  After a 2006 trip to Greenland with her mother, Rena Bass Forman a landscape photographer, Zaria’s  attention turned to “gorgeous icebergs”.  At this point I want to mention again that she works in pastels, an extremely difficult media to handle particularly with her limited palette of whites and blues and the incredible light and texture she achieves.

2017 Errera Channel, Antarctica #2

Her first exhibition in 2006 was at the Carla Massoni Gallery in Chestertown named “The Next Generation”.  This was followed in 2007 with a summer group show, also at the Massoni Gallery.  From Chestertown to the world, Forman’s pastels are shown world-wide and she is known as an important voice supporting climate change.  As she is a contemporary artist she is often interviewed in magazines.  She is an excellent spokes person for her art and her ideas and I have chosen to use several of them in this article.

“With my Greenland series I attempt to capture the ephemeral properties of arctic light. I am interested in the element of water and how it absorbs and reflects the light in its various forms. .. “I am also interested in the transition between these states and enjoy the challenge of translating such sublime experiences into my work. The different forms of illuminated water give rise to the dreamy, atmospheric scenes that I hope will transport the viewer to this remote region of the earth. … Perhaps if people can experience these sublime landscapes, they will be inspired to protect and preserve them.”

2017 Iceberg, Antarctica #2

In 2008 and 2010 she traveled to Svalbard, Norway to continue her study of arctic light, water and the ice of the archipelago.   In Maine she explored Thompson Lake where the purity, quality and biodiversity of the water is protected by The Thompson Lake Environmental Association.  It is some of the cleanest and clearest water in the world.  In 2012 and 2014, after trips aboard the Wanderbird up the east coast to the NW corner of Greenland,   she created a large collection of pastel drawings called “Chasing the Light”.  These trips also broadened her outlook.  For the first time she took helicopter rides over the top of the ice caps, instead of looking  at them from sea level.  In 10 days she covered 26,000 miles and flew for over 70 hours looking down and photographing.  She had 133,000 Instagram followers on her flight.

“When the climate crisis was illuminated for me…, I knew immediately that I had to address it in my work. It’s arguably the most important crisis we face as a global community. If I can make drawings that will help viewers understand this, and help connect them with a place that is otherwise remote and distant to most people, I knew that was what I had to do.”

Since then she has traveled all over the earth observing and drawing our planets water. Her art came to the attention of NASA.  In 2016 and 2017 she was invited to go on Operation Ice Bridge, which has been mapping and measuring the glaciers on the North and South Poles. 

 “I was able to witness an entirely new perspective of the ice, and in most cases, one that no artist had ever seen before.  These expeditions inspired a new body of work that explores aerial views of polar ice, translating the magnificence that I experienced flying over these large and beautiful ice masses.”

“That’s one reason why I focus on the beauty instead of the devastation. I don’t want to make people to feel overwhelmed or disgusted or depressed. That’s not empowering. I focus on the beauty of these vulnerable regions, in order to empower viewers.”

“Art inevitably creates an emotional response. We also want to protect that which we love. If I can offer people a time and place for viewers to have an emotional connection with these remote landscapes, and fall in love with them as I have, perhaps they will be inspired to protect and preserve them.”

Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years.  Since retiring with her husband Kurt to Chestertown six years ago, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL and Chesapeake College’s Institute for Adult Learning.  She is also an artist whose work is sometimes in exhibitions at Chestertown RiverArts and she paints sets for the Garfield Center for the Arts.