An Interview with Zaria Forman

Zaria Forman makes pastel drawings of glaciers and icebergs and the changing landscapes of places like Antarctica, Greenland, and the Maldives. She does this to bring attention to climate change and to honor her mother who started it all. Zaria shares how taking risks and having the courage to grow has been an essential part of her journey. We get into the nitty-gritty of how she works: from curating thousands of photographs, getting just the right shades of blue for her pastel drawings, and even a bit on how she runs her studio. Zaria’s work has been featured in National Geographic, she recently gave a TED talk and she was invited by Sven Lindblad as an artist aboard Lindblad expeditions. We talk about how all that came about. Anyway, as you’ll hear, we geek out a little bit, and I loved every second of it. There is a moment in this interview when Zaria tells me about what she is doing with some noises she recorded in Antarctica. My geeky little heart skipped a beat when she told me who is helping her and who stopped by her studio. I kind of had fan girl moment. You’re going to have to listen to find out who that is.