Evanesce, The Silence

11 x 11 inches, Edition of 22 created for the portfolio Wetland, Swamps, Bogs and Fens

For 30 years, I have lived across from a wetland and downstream from a 60-acre pond. In spring, one can hear a chorus of spring peepers in the marsh. However, at the pond, only a few frogs are heard – one can count their calls on one hand. There is a busy road that runs parallel to the pond, with dirt roads encircling it. Moving at a slow, steady pace and with determination, oblivious to vehicles, migrating populations of reptiles and amphibians are decimated by road traffic, despite their massive reproductive numbers. In Massachusetts research determined a roadkill rate above 10 percent was sufficient to eliminate any group of spotted salamanders. [1]

Printed on topographical maps of Massachusetts are impressions printed directly from an American toad peeled off the road, a small red slider crushed with a cracked carapace, and a wood cut of a swallow. The fourth impression is my car tire driven across the print.

[1] Goldfarb, Ben: Crossings, How Road Ecology is shaping the Future of Our Planet, 2023, Chapter 5 In Cold Blood