EVER / AFTER
Marion Belanger + Martha Willette Lewis 

Ever/After is a collaborative multimedia art project that consists of photographs by Marion Belanger and ink paintings and collage by Martha Willette Lewis. This visual dialogue grew from their shared state of unease and concern regarding the climate crisis. Belanger makes photographs in the field and prints them on lightweight but durable rice paper that Lewis then soaks, stains, tears and paints upon. The added stress upon the photographic image (some which have already been altered by double exposure and intentional abstraction) symbolically references the damages and disturbances such as extreme storms, forest fires and extinctions that are now so evident in daily life. Manipulated, gilded, stained and torn, the works become artifacts bearing the impact of human touch, just as the earth itself does. In its fragility, Ever/After is a visual lament for the seepages, shifts, losses, extinctions, and extractions made by humankind.