Ya’el Pedroza: Humanocene

“We often forget that WE ARE NATURE. Nature is not something separate from us. So when we say that we have lost our connection to nature, we’ve lost our connection to ourselves.”

-From Sacred Ecology, Andy Goldsworthy

This exhibition reflects on the artist’s relationship to the natural world—in both spiritual and visceral ways. Her title, Humanocene, is a blend of two words, human, and Anthropocene, our current geological epoch that is defined by rapid changes to ecological systems and climate, largely from human impact.

While Pedroza’s work acknowledges the effect of humans on the earth through the inclusion of trash, debris, and felled tree stumps, it also creates a more optimistic counter, by depicting nature as a capable, prevailing, and mystical entity with the ability to restructure and resuscitate itself. For Pedroza, our ability to correct damage to the earth must start with our reconnection to the land. She says, “Being in nature for me is experiential and awakens my senses, filling me with life. We cannot afford to lose our connection with nature, the connection to ourselves.”

Ya’el Paderoza currently lives in Ogden, Utah where she teaches Art as an adjunct professor at Weber State University. She received her M.F.A. from California State University at Long Beach, and her B.F.A. at Sierra Nevada College in Incline Village, Nevada. Her art has been shown nationally in group shows throughout California, New York, Florida, Washington, Nevada, Oregon, Illinois, and Wisconsin, and internationally in Italy, and Denmark at the Roennebaeksholm Arts and Culture Center.