THE DAILY FROG PROJECT
My son and I had been holed up in our two bedroom apartment in Edina, MN for weeks. The year was 2020 and the pandemic had altered the world. I was determined to create a daily discipline to paint, and initially I started a series of 24 frogs. These first two dozen frogs kept me painting for the first month, and it spurred the idea to paint 300 Frogs; the name of the book I kept around the studio. When I shared the idea that I was going to paint 300 frogs, it felt like an ambitious and inspiring goal. When I finished my 300th frog paining, I knew I was just getting going. That was the moment the Daily Frog Project was born. And as of this show, it has continued for over 1,000 consecutive days.
So, why frogs? Because I love nature.
For me, frogs are a symbol. A symbol of life on Earth. A symbol of our consciousness, a symbol of how fragile and interconnected everything is all the time. Our thoughts are linked to our actions, our actions are linked to the built environment. The built environment will determine whether nature can thrive or not; and, in the current iteration, nature is not thriving. On the contrary, it is being destroyed.
I had the great privilege of studying under the American biologist and naturalist E.O. Wilson. He warned that frogs are considered the “environmental canary in the coal mine.” What happens to them will befall mankind. I paint a frog a day in the studio as a meditation and reminder for myself, and to raise awareness with others of this poignant and profoundly important truth.
The Harvard Gazette recently published an article in 2023 titled, “Who will fight for the frogs?” The piece cited a monumental study. “According to the Nature study, which evaluated more than 8,000 amphibian species worldwide, two out of every five amphibians are now threatened with extinction. Climate change is one of the main drivers. Habitat destruction and degradation from agriculture, infrastructure, and other industries are the most common threats to these animals” (Manning, 2023). As if that wasn’t bad enough, there is also a deadly fungus which attacks frogs’ skin spreading worldwide. The New York Times writes, “One study estimates that since the 1970s, around 200 frog species have disappeared, with a projected loss of hundreds more in the next century. The rate of decline is particularly startling given that, until now, amphibians have outlasted most of life on Earth” (Mishan, 2018). The article goes on to say, “Frogs are linchpins in the ecosystem, both predator and prey. And they are our watchmen, keeping vigil over our ponds, marshes, lakes and streams, our meadows and our woods, the quality of our water and our air.”
There is still hope for the frogs. And for mankind.
It is not too late.
I have made it my purpose in life to inspire love for nature. Not for pure inspiration sake, but for the possibility of others to get connected to their love for nature through the experience of my art.
Frog is the possibility of nature existing in harmony, alongside the noise of humanity.
Frog is the possibility of cleaning up after ourselves . . . because there are others who also use the space.
Frog is the possibility of biodiversity. The possibility of ecology.
Frog is the possibility of protecting the smallest things inside a huge, monstrous industrial system because we can. Because we have eyes to see the frog. And if we can’t see the frog, we know that our children can. And when our children stop seeing frogs, our children are diminished. Their joy will not be the same as ours was in childhood. Our children will wonder less if there are no frogs. And if children stop wondering we don’t know what the ripple effect into the greater consciousness will be.
Frog is the possibility of stewardship, the possibility we will redeem our legacy today.
The Daily Frog Show is an exhibition of over 1,400 paintings on canvas and more than 600 works on paper, representing nearly 500 species of frogs. The sounds of the show are the calls of North American frogs and toads, the 100 species dearest to my heart. Paintings on canvas are also installed on the floors as a reminder to walk through life on Earth more mindfully. This colorful, expressive, and immersive show is a direct response to the darkness that is our current reality of destruction and deforestation.