RING OF FIRE: FRIENDS, REEFS, AND BOUNCING BACK
The Guild Room
May 9, 2025 to July 5, 2023
Coral reefs are an ancient microcosm with a changing diversity of phantasmagoric beauty. As a crucial building block of our planet that feeds twenty-five percent of sea life, the urgency to save coral from repeated bleaching episodes is becoming clear. The Ring of Fire and Coral Triangle, located in the Southern Pacific Ocean, shows why it matters.
Endorsed by UNESCO for ocean awareness during the United Nations Ocean Decade, Margot McMahon’s Ring of Fire: Friends, Reefs, and Bouncing Back exhibit brings attention to how human activities, such as burning fossil fuels, significantly contribute to climate change and rising sea temperatures, which severely impacts ocean life and marine biodiversity. United States’ weather patterns originate in the Southern Pacific Ocean. A warmer ocean slows currents causing west coast droughts, more volatile storms, and Midwest flooding.
On McMahon’s 2017 diving excursion to the Palauan reefs in the Ring of Fire with a childhood friend, they witnessed the largest recorded global bleaching event, impacting the Coral Triangle: a marine epicenter with the highest coral reef and fish diversity in the world. On a return trip in 2023, the two friends and environmental activists observed a revitalization of the coral reefs through a healthy reef bounce-back, made possible by reduced carbon emissions during the global Covid-19 lock-down, conservation efforts, and sustainable practices.
Over the seven years of reef recovery worldwide, McMahon painted her Ring of Fire series to show the symbiotic relationship between a vast variety of plants, animals, and minerals that form the most diverse ecosystem on earth. Her ocean landscapes also emulate prayer cloths to express a spiritual energy that conveys healing, while highlighting the biodiversity and stunning magnificence of the reefs. Through her technique mixte process, combining egg tempera and oil paints, McMahon’s coral reefs are luminous, as light penetrates and reflects through the layers, giving the paintings a depth and vibrancy that echo the resonance of the ocean.
Coral reef bleaching events are caused by environmental stressors that include increased water temperatures due to global warming and human pollution. These stressors disrupt the interdependent relationship between coral and algae, leading to the whitening or bleaching of corals. With the increase of carbon emissions since 2023, the world is currently experiencing its fourth global coral bleaching event, which NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) announced in April 2024 and is ongoing. This event has affected coral reefs across all major ocean basins, including the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans.
Margot extends thanks to her friend, Pat Dorsey for travel adventures, poetically acknowledging how their lifelong bond mimics the coral and algae symbiosis of being better together.
UNESCO endorses Ring of Fire: Friends, Reefs, and Bouncing Back, a gorgeously painted exhibition that introduces coral reefs, symbiotic land and life, and their destruction by environmental changes.
RSVP for the opening reception on Friday, May 9 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the link below.
Click HERE for more information on gallery hours and private appointments.
RING OF FIRE: FRIENDS, REEFS, AND BOUNCING BACK
The Guild Room
May 9, 2025 to July 5, 2023
Coral reefs are an ancient microcosm with a changing diversity of phantasmagoric beauty. As a crucial building block of our planet that feeds twenty-five percent of sea life, the urgency to save coral from repeated bleaching episodes is becoming clear. The Ring of Fire and Coral Triangle, located in the Southern Pacific Ocean, shows why it matters.
Endorsed by UNESCO for ocean awareness during the United Nations Ocean Decade, Margot McMahon’s Ring of Fire: Friends, Reefs, and Bouncing Back exhibit brings attention to how human activities, such as burning fossil fuels, significantly contribute to climate change and rising sea temperatures, which severely impacts ocean life and marine biodiversity. United States’ weather patterns originate in the Southern Pacific Ocean. A warmer ocean slows currents causing west coast droughts, more volatile storms, and Midwest flooding.
On McMahon’s 2017 diving excursion to the Palauan reefs in the Ring of Fire with a childhood friend, they witnessed the largest recorded global bleaching event, impacting the Coral Triangle: a marine epicenter with the highest coral reef and fish diversity in the world. On a return trip in 2023, the two friends and environmental activists observed a revitalization of the coral reefs through a healthy reef bounce-back, made possible by reduced carbon emissions during the global Covid-19 lock-down, conservation efforts, and sustainable practices.
Over the seven years of reef recovery worldwide, McMahon painted her Ring of Fire series to show the symbiotic relationship between a vast variety of plants, animals, and minerals that form the most diverse ecosystem on earth. Her ocean landscapes also emulate prayer cloths to express a spiritual energy that conveys healing, while highlighting the biodiversity and stunning magnificence of the reefs. Through her technique mixte process, combining egg tempera and oil paints, McMahon’s coral reefs are luminous, as light penetrates and reflects through the layers, giving the paintings a depth and vibrancy that echo the resonance of the ocean.
Coral reef bleaching events are caused by environmental stressors that include increased water temperatures due to global warming and human pollution. These stressors disrupt the interdependent relationship between coral and algae, leading to the whitening or bleaching of corals. With the increase of carbon emissions since 2023, the world is currently experiencing its fourth global coral bleaching event, which NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) announced in April 2024 and is ongoing. This event has affected coral reefs across all major ocean basins, including the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans.
Margot extends thanks to her friend, Pat Dorsey for travel adventures, poetically acknowledging how their lifelong bond mimics the coral and algae symbiosis of being better together.
UNESCO endorses Ring of Fire: Friends, Reefs, and Bouncing Back, a gorgeously painted exhibition that introduces coral reefs, symbiotic land and life, and their destruction by environmental changes.
RSVP for the opening reception on Friday, May 9 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the link below.
Click HERE for more information on gallery hours and private appointments.
Margot McMahon is life-long environmentalist, internationally awarded artist, and nationally awarded author. Her multidisciplinary practice explores human, plant, and animal forms and their relationship to the environment. McMahon uses her practice as a call to action, educating audiences on the importance of environmental preservation. McMahon holds a degree in Environmental Journalism and earned an MFA from Yale University and was a fellow at Timothy Dwight College. She has taught at Yale University, Yale Norfolk, the Art Institute of Chicago, and DePaul University.
As an artist and author, McMahon’s work has made powerful environmental statements, leading to several accolades including an endorsement from UNESCO, the Art and Culture Award from Soka Gakkai International, NFPW National Book Award, Mate E. Palmer Book Award, and the Rose Philippine Duchesne Society Award. Among her many publications, her writing includes a children’s book entitled Coral: is it An Animal, Plant, or Mineral?, The Margot McMahon Collection, and published environmental statements in World Book Encyclopedia, Chicago Magazine, and Scholastic Magazine.
Margot McMahon is life-long environmentalist, internationally awarded artist, and nationally awarded author. Her multidisciplinary practice explores human, plant, and animal forms and their relationship to the environment. McMahon uses her practice as a call to action, educating audiences on the importance of environmental preservation. McMahon holds a degree in Environmental Journalism and earned an MFA from Yale University and was a fellow at Timothy Dwight College. She has taught at Yale University, Yale Norfolk, the Art Institute of Chicago, and DePaul University.
As an artist and author, McMahon’s work has made powerful environmental statements, leading to several accolades including an endorsement from UNESCO, the Art and Culture Award from Soka Gakkai International, NFPW National Book Award, Mate E. Palmer Book Award, and the Rose Philippine Duchesne Society Award. Among her many publications, her writing includes a children’s book entitled Coral: is it An Animal, Plant, or Mineral?, The Margot McMahon Collection, and published environmental statements in World Book Encyclopedia, Chicago Magazine, and Scholastic Magazine.
