Maddi Bacon Artist

I live my life with one foot in the conservation world and one foot in the art world, though to me they feel one and the same; two legs on the same body. I have worked for conservation corps, the Forest Service and the National Park Service, doing a variety of projects including invasive species removal, biological monitoring protocols, trail building, and wildland firefighting. These jobs have brought a lot of purpose to my life and taught me things about my own body’s capability and gender. This passion in my work as a conservationist has led to a much more intentional and meaningful art practice. My practice moves fluidly between painting, writing, animation, and possibly most passionately with comic making. These narratives aren’t just a nature documentary talking about the environment, but that draw connections between nature and gender, the environment and public health, and climate change and what humans deem as valuable.

With a BFA in Fine Art from University of Delaware and having traveled a lot of the country for work, I am now primarily based out of Oregon. I have received support from numerous residencies, including Olympic National Park’s Terminus Project, The Sitka Center for Art and Ecology,  PLAYA’s Wildfire + Water: Artists and Scientists Collaborating for Change, and the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest's Fireline Fellowship.