The Wildcrafting Our Queerness Project

Ecology

Appalachia is a region full of environmental beauty and diversity. Second only to the Amazon rainforest, the Appalachian Mountains (particularly the southern areas of the region) are one of the biologically diverse regions in the Western Hemisphere, being home to thousands upon thousands of unique species of plants, animals, fungi, and more. 

At the same time, however, mass environmental injustice plagues Appalachia. Beginning with European colonization of Indigenous lands and continuing with highly extractive coal mining, Mountaintop Removal Mining, and the attempted installation of massive pipelines, industrial capitalism continues to take its toll on the region. These extractive processes have resulted in immense harm to both humans and non-human nature throughout the region. 

Many of the artists depicting Appalachia reflect this juxtaposition between environmental beauty and destruction in their work. Whether directly addressing specific instances of injustice, using scavenging assemblage methods to repurpose "trash" around them, or blurring the lines between "human" and "nature," LGBTQ+ Appalachian artists rarely remain neutral when it comes to the ecology of the region. 

This page has paths:

  1. Themes Maxwell Cloe

Contents of this path:

  1. A woman alone in the woods sees her own reflection
  2. Beadwork Necklace
  3. Charles Williams' House and Yard
  4. Chemical Bonds
  5. Corn Boy
  6. Ecosex Wedding to the Appalachian Mountains
  7. Ecosexuality
  8. The Food of Boyhood
  9. forest cruise
  10. Friends
  11. God Willing and the Creek Don't Rise
  12. Homesick Punk Possum
  13. In Admiration
  14. Investing in Fall
  15. Kentucky Imperial Agate Bolo Tie
  16. Mountain Faces
  17. Patch Work
  18. Pencil Holders
  19. Plant Cyanotypes
  20. Pride Moth Pins
  21. Salty Gumdrop Tree
  22. Slate Lines
  23. Speak of Inez with Love I
  24. Speak of Inez with Love III
  25. The Conception of Ishmael; The Visage Fantastic of a Dirty Man, Clean
  26. The Red Tulips
  27. Trout Mountain
  28. Untitled (Landscape)
  29. Untitled Stump Sculptures
  30. Wild Ramp and Morel Mushrooms are Girlfriends