Oil & Acrylic

This is Julie Bolduc-Duval, a Canadian astronomy educator and lead of “Découverte de l’Univers,” which provides free astronomy training and educational resources for educators in both French and English. I first met Julie in 2019 through Astronomers for Planet Earth, and we have served as co-chairs of the Education Resources working group, sharing our favorite educational tools for emphasizing that “There is No Planet B.” We also collaborated on an A4E Eclipse Outreach video called “Alignment for Planet Earth” (also available in French, Japanese, and Spanish) by Steve Agnos Films. Julie did amazing work to prepare Canadians for the April 2024 solar eclipse, including publishing a book, for which she was recognized as one of L’actualité’s Personnalités de l’année. And she even has an asteroid named after her! Even though we have not met in person (yet), I feel that I’ve gotten to know Julie personally over the years as we have collectively grappled with the pain of our planet in crisis, the joy of sharing in a cosmic perspective and our love for nature, the need to navigate rest and action, and the importance of remembering what we are all connected.

“Every individual matters. Every individual has a role to play. Every individual makes a difference.”

~Jane Goodall

I got the idea to paint Jane Goodall while speaking with Cassie Briggs on her Diverse Routes podcast. I’ve been working on this one since January, slowly, and on a canvas that already had bright paint streaks on it and some holes in it, so I wouldn’t feel pressured to “get it right” or finish at all. But it did come together, actually the same week that Jane Goodall departed this world. Another climate woman who helped us imagine our potential, the “indomitable human spirit.” If you, like me, could use some hope at this time, I recommend her book, The Book of Hope.

Tea Pot Still Life (Oil, 2010)

Birds of Paradise (Oil, 2012)

Maddy (Oil, 2013)

Nichol (Oil, 2016)