2B — Thursday, October 17, 2019
b-side
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Climate change is real and it’s happening now. From fossil 
fuel emissions and greenhouse gases, to the growing ecological 
footprints of individuals all across the country, our earth is in a 
state of crisis. These are only a few layers to the broader crisis 
we are facing while simultaneously waiting for government 
officials to implement some form of policy to change this broken 
system. As the 2020 election moves closer each day, individuals 
and candidates are doing everything in their power to draw 
attention to this issue. Artists are no exception.
The climate crisis is abstract and intimidating. It can be 
confusing to understand exactly what it entails when the 
effects of climate change are sometimes hidden, or have been 
entrenched in our societal norms for so long, we forgot they 
were even there. As activists and community members alike are 
taking to the streets, urging for change, so are artists. Their work 
serves as an integral visual reminder of what is at stake, and in 
many cases, bridges the gap between different communities, 
identities and locations across the country. Artist and activist 
Ellen Rutt and activist Joseph Trumpey, a University professor, 
are on the frontlines of this movement in Michigan, working 
alongside their communities in Detroit and Ann Arbor to raise 
awareness about this crisis, unifying individuals of all identities 
and reminding us that in this fight, we are all connected and 
must urge for policy change together. 
Detroit based artist Ellen Ruttis often known first for her 
massive, abstract murals. With murals located in Grand Rapids, 
Ann Arbor, Detroit and beyond, Rutt explains how her role as a 
muralist came to be and how it has guided her path into other, 
more environmentally driven projects. 
“I definitely think that murals are how I branded myself. And 
now, I’m shifting away from that, or shifting into more political 
murals or saying no to murals that don’t align with the projects 
that I really think are important,” Rutt said in an interview 
with The Daily at her studio in Detroit. Rutt’s work consists of 
colorful, abstract paintings of all sizes — her murals being the 
largest — and are often for clients. Rutt mentions her murals as 
the more traditional side of her practice, a way 
to sustain herself and her studio. 
“Do I always want to do commercial 
murals? What are the conversations I want 
to have? Moving forward … it’s figuring out 
how to do (murals) with as much integrity as 
possible,” Rutt said. With murals as her tool 
for supporting her more contextual collections 
of paintings, Rutt has always been an advocate 
for the environment, a theme that has driven 
her most recent collection of paintings.
“(The environment) was definitely always 
part of my life … it was just after the IPCC 
report came out at the end of 2018 that I think 
kicked every part of me into gear because 
it put a very tangible time frame (on) the 
number — we have 12 years. It felt like all of 
a sudden all of these things that were sort of 
ambiguously in the future had a timeline. It 
was at that moment that everything inside of 
me switched,” Rutt said.
This 
environmental 
influence 
shows 
through in Rutt’s most recent collection of 
paintings titled “This Must be the Place.” Each 
painting includes found textures existing in 
conversation with Rutt’s well known, bright, 
abstract shapes. 
“I haven’t always done this, but I would go 
outside and do rubbings and gather textures 
and find various ways to use the landscape for 
the backdrop of my paintings. That shows up 
in a number of ways, from very linear to more 
abstract and loose,” Rutt said. She explained 
that bringing these textures into other spaces 
creates a very specific experience, one viewers 
can exist within. Rutt described how this 
process was formed from her experience with murals. As she 
created each part of the collection, she asked questions about 
the way that spaces create experiences and how our culture can 
interact with the spaces depicted in her paintings. It is these 
questions that build the visuals and theme of “This Must be the 
Place,” a collection created in direct response to the climate 
crisis. 
“These (paintings) were my way of gathering evidence and 
capturing aspects of places that may not always be around or that 
will inevitably change. I think there is also something deeply 
intimate about not just looking at something and drawing, but 
setting (the canvas) on the wall and really physically being on 
the ground or in a space. That also really reconnected me with 
my commitment to what it means to participate in a conversation 
about climate change,” Rutt said. She explained that this body 
of work pulls textures from all around the world, bringing 
textures of all environments to one gallery space for audiences 
to interpret. 
“I can’t make work outside, in this way, and not say it exists 
within the context of climate change. We have to deal with that 
… now,” Rutt said. 
The textures present in “This Must be the Place” started at a 

residency Rutt completed in 
New York, and more textures 
were pulled from locations 
all across the United States 
during a road trip to Los 
Angeles. 
Rutt 
explained 
that 
while 
the 
message 
of this collection may not 
immediately emerge, it is the 
selection of these locations 
and 
the 
individuals 
she 
meets at each location that 
build their context and bring 
her closer to a fight against 
climate change. 
“In my current juncture, 
I’m not an energy expert, and 
I’m not a policy expert. What 
I do have access to are forms 
of culture. So what I’m most 
interested in at this moment, 
which will eventually evolve, 
is learning enough about 
these other (places) to funnel 
the 
information 
I 
learn 
to all the people who pay 
attention to my work, and 
also connect with people who are on the front lines, who are 
people of color, who are marginalized communities to also say, 
‘Where are you needing the most support, how can we envision 
this just transition, how can I be an ally?’” With this notion, Rutt 
explained her personal and artistic ties to how this body of work 
especially impacts policy and climate reform.
“I don’t know that my particular work will inspire policymakers 
to act differently. I think it’s the way that (these paintings) are 
made and the reason for them being born. It’s all the auxiliary 
things outside of the paintings which is starting to ask, where 
should I do the place paintings, and why do them there? Who do 
I meet while I’m there? The more people talk about it, the more 
it just becomes known and will ultimately elevate the activism 

to a degree where I hope policy makers are like, ‘Wow, this is 
serious,’” Rutt said. 
Rutt’s work invites us to understand that we are all connected 
to the spaces we inhabit. Rutt argues that it is in these overlaps 
of our environments where viewers can see how integral it is to 
protect these spaces, as they are already changing.
“We have to first see (climate change) as a huge problem and 
see the alternatives not as something to be overwhelmed by — 
or maybe to be overwhelmed by — but to commit to anyway, 
because it actually could benefit so many people in ways that we 
can’t even imagine yet. It’s not as much an act of sacrificing as 
it is an act of liberation, making it as joyous and empowering as 
possible to change our whole view on the value system that we 
currently have,” Rutt said. 
A parallel to Ellen Rutt’s environmentally driven abstract 
paintings and murals is Professor Joseph Trumpey. An educator 
at the University’s Stamps School of Art & Design and the 
School of Natural Resources & Environment, Trumpey said in 
an interview with The Daily that “making beautiful stuff to 
change the world,” is a gig for him. Similar to Rutt’s work, his 
emphasis and extensive knowledge of green building focuses on 
connection and inspiring broader communities to take action 
in the fight against climate 
change. 
“I think there’s a natural 
fit for creative work to be 
able to tell unique stories,” 
Trumpey said. “Personally I 
was an avid boy scout as a kid 
in the ’70s, so my time was 
spent learning about the Big 
Woods and how to camp and 
to do things, but it was also … 
how to clean up.” 
Trumpey 
said 
environmental 
issues 
impacted society early on, 
and now they have lasting 
effects on us today.
“For the last fifty years, 
the environment has been a 
pressing issue in the mindset 
of North Americans. Now 
we’re on the rebirth of the 
first Earth Day and we’re 
on the anniversary of the 
Cuyahoga 
River 
catching 
on fire. All of that set into 
motion a lot of activism,” 
Trumpey said. While these 
early 
forms 
of 
activism 

have shaped the action we are aiming to take today, Trumpey 
mentioned that the climate crisis is not so black and white. 
“I think it was easier to get people motivated back then 
because rivers were on fire; that’s a very dramatic thing that 
doesn’t take much paying attention to notice. People look at that 
and go, ‘Oh crap … bad news, we need to fix that right?’ And now 
it’s a lot more subtle. Look, it’s a beautiful day, but up there in 
the atmosphere, there are bad greenhouse gases,” Trumpey said. 
With this knowledge of the environment, Trumpey’s work is 
heavily centered around environmentally conscious building 
and reducing the sizes of footprints that exist within the built 
environment. A master of strawbale building, Trumpey has 
educated students in this strategy at the University’s botanical 
gardens and lives in astrawbale homethat 
he built with his wife and family. 
“We live off the grid and we do not 
purchase meat or eggs. We grow half of 
our food and we make all of our electricity. 
So once you’re paying attention in those 
sort of ways you understand that there’s 
such a thing as good pork versus bad pork, 
and there’s good electricity versus bad 
electricity.” 
Trumpey noted that while he pays 
attention to his footprint in this way, other 
larger groups of individuals (he offered the 
University population as an example) do 
not. 
“This works for me and it works for 
subsets of folks, hopefully we can get it to 
work for decision makers and policy makers 
because if you look at U-M, we can’t expect 
90,000 people to pay attention to their 
electricity this way. If we got the decision 
makers to think about it like, ‘Oh crap. 
There really is bad electricity,’ and that’s 
called the grid,” Trumpey said.
Trumpey explained that the grid is 
heavily based on fossil fuels and large 
areas of development, like the University, 
are built with this type of environmentally 
harmful 
electrical 
system. 
Strawbale 
buildings combat this, while simultaneously 
building connections among those who are 
ready to make these changes in the built 
environment. 
“You’ve got to build those relationships 
and trust to be able to do something that’s 
technically against the rules. ‘Strawbale 
buildings are technically illegal in the state of Michigan.’ So 
how do you get somebody to be able to trust you enough to do 
something illegal, and you’re not doing it in the shadows like 
to rebel? You’re doing it in full daylight to get people to pay 
attention differently,” Trumpey said. 
It is this notion that makes Trumpey’s work such a strong 
parallel to Ellen Rutt’s environmentally themed paintings. 
Both individuals are using their knowledge and depictions of 
environmental consciousness to invite a broader audience to 
learn from their techniques and urging them to follow their lead. 
Trumpey also heads an effort to build a sustainable campus 
farmfor students at the University, made entirely out of straw.
“I think that’s what the strawbale at the farm is all about. 
It’s about building a community, but it’s also about pushing the 
edge out so that people could go, ‘Oh, look, yeah, that’s cool.’ I 
understand the mission of that, it’s tangible, it’s part of a bigger 
thing. (Strawbale campus farms) gets a lot of attention and 
people are there, they’re drawn to it, because it’s beautiful and 
has texture. It was built by humans that they know, and it came 
from the land,” Trumpey said. 
Trumpey explained that this is the type of thought we need to 
approach green buildings with. He argues that we need to focus 
on the bigger picture instead of aestheticized debates that are 
currently circulating the climate crisis. 
“Efficient building is cool, it’s needed, but it won’t fix 
everything. We get distracted by the scale of things, like the 
plastic straw debate. There’s stupid stuff we get lost on. My 
house and my practice doesn’t have a significant effect on the 
footprint of Southeastern Michigan or my township because it’s 
just me and my family right now, but I think you punch outside 
your weight class, because it draws a lot of attention and makes 
people think,” Trumpey said. 
The work of both Ellen Rutt and Joseph Trumpey is unifying 
members of Ann Arbor and Detroit communities. By starting 
a conversation through abstract art and green building, Rutt 
and Trumpey are making alternatives to our broken system 
accessible to the masses. As they open these conversations 
and engage with wider audiences through their work, a wider 
understanding of the need for environmental policy reform 
becomes even more present. While this work is not directly 
building new policy, through its inclusivity and ability to spark 
conversation, the informed viewers of Rutt’s art and Trumpey’s 
buildings can come away with the realization that in order to 
make environmentally conscious decisions, we must urge for 
policy reform to make them more feasible.
“How do we change the system so that it’s not about making 
smart or ‘right’ choices, it’s so that the options available are 
significantly better? How can we stand by our morals, work to 
get better, then just commit to understanding we’re interwoven? 
Let’s fight to break apart this system of reliance on fossil fuels,” 
Rutt said.

Activism: Building bridges against the climate crisis

MARGARET SHERIDAN
Daily Style Editor

B-SIDE: LEAD

COURTESY OF JOSEPH TRUMPEY

COURTESY OF JOSEPH TRUMPEY

By starting a conversation through abstract 
art and green building, Rutt and Trumpey 
are making alternatives to our broken 
systems accessible to the masses. As they 
open these conversations and engage 
with wider audiences through their work, 
a wider understanding of the need for 
environmental policy reform becomes even 
more present.

