During my training as a Minnesota Water Steward, which primarily took place during Minnesota’s third snowiest winter season on record (2023), I learned how chloride from road deicer severely harms our waterways and all living organisms that depend on that freshwater ecosystem. It takes only 1 teaspoon of road salt to permanently pollute five gallons of water. With this new awareness, I felt an urgency to create artwork that calls attention to and offers solutions for fresh water protection during the winter. Once I began to notice excess salt on our sidewalks and roadways, I couldn’t stop seeing it. 

In April 2023, I swept up four gallons of residual road salt from a parking lot and brought it into my studio to conceptualize this new work. Integrating the deicer with materials such as cement, indigo and plant roots, this series is an invitation into conversations about how to start seeing chloride deicer as a major pollutant and to reduce usage for the health of our water, our bodies and our communities.