Annie Hejny

I am drawn to the liminal spaces of urban ecosystems where water has shaped the landscape. Through years of lived, embodied relationship with the waters of the Midwest—the Mississippi River and Lake Superior—my work dwells in the tension of legacy pollutants and the realities of human-impacted climate change. Working across painting, sculpture, installation, video, and social practice, I gather materials from the environment—water, sediment, road salt, snow, tree bark—to resituate onto surfaces and construct visual forms that carry both scientific and emotional meaning. My multidisciplinary approach weaves ecological research and material science with stewardship practices and community engagement. I create spaces for reflection, storytelling, and collective healing to arise revealing that the environmental crisis is inseparable from emotional and spiritual disconnection. Engaging the public through my artwork and artistic process is, for me, a form of climate action. I work with insistence and intention amid societal and ecological collapse, inviting my community to remember our deep connection to the natural world through our most vital and fragile resource—water.