Against Forgetting

Nina Montenegro
issue of Northwest Review.

I encountered an enormous tree stump on Orcas Island (likely a Doug Fir) and tenderly took a rubbing with a wax crayon. I had always marveled at the similarity between the rings of a tree and the rings of our human fingerprints, but I was shocked to see the rings actually align when I took an inked fingerprint and enlarged it to the scale of the tree rings. What resulted was a harmonious depiction of humanity’s kinship (and belonging) with nature.

Nina Montenegro is a Chilean American visual artist working toward an ecologically-vibrant and socially-just future. Her work has been featured in Orion, Art in America, Yes! Magazine, The Guardian, and Grist. She is cofounder and cocreative director of the design studio The Far Woods, currently located in Bloomington, IN.