Contemporary Icons of Threatened and Endangered Species Artist Angela Manno has applied the traditional processes of icon painting to contemporary environmental concerns in this collection entitled ENDANGERED SPECIES. Manno says: “Most of the fauna and flora depicted are threatened or critically endangered. The extinction rate is currently hundreds, perhaps thousands of times higher than the natural rate, causing what is considered to be the sixth mass extinction. Based on these statistics, biologist E.O. Wilson estimates that if current trends continue, half of Earth's animal and plant species will be extinct by the end of this century. It is clear that the Western mind is divorced from Nature, the primary condition that has led to the current ecological catastrophe. I feel that the only way back - indeed our own survival - depends on nothing less than a re-enchantment with the Earth as a living reality. It is for this reason that I have chosen to depict non-human species in a traditionally religious form: the icon. These contemporary icons represent the confluence of my search for a form of expression that merges my art, scientific understanding and mystical sensibilities with the current zeitgeist which is turning more and more towards ecology, given the concern over the biosphere and climate disruption.”
To read more about her approach and enjoy the full collection, visit https://angelamanno.com/iconography