Runnning the Numbers II     This new series looks at mass phenomena that occur on a global scale. Similarly to the first Running the Numbers series, each image portrays a specific quantity of something: the number of tuna fished from the world's oceans every fifteen minutes, for example. But this time the statistics are global in scale, rather than specifically American. Finding meaning in global mass phenomena can be difficult because the phenomena themselves are invisible, spread across the earth in millions of separate places. There is no Mount Everest of waste that we can make a pilgrimage to and behold the sobering aggregate of our discarded stuff, seeing and feeling it viscerally with our senses. Instead, we are stuck with trying to comprehend the gravity of these phenomena through the anaesthetizing and emotionally barren language of statistics. Sociologists tell us that the human mind cannot meaningfully grasp numbers higher than a few thousand; yet every day we read of mass phenomena characterized by numbers in the millions, billions, even trillions. Compounding this challenge is our sense of insignificance as individuals in a world of 6.7 billion people. And if we fully open ourselves to the horrors of our times, we also risk becoming overwhelmed, panicked, or emotionally paralyzed. I believe it is worth connecting with these issues and allowing them to matter to us personally, despite the complex mixtures of anger, fear, grief, and rage that this process can entail. Perhaps these uncomfortable feelings can become part of what connects us, serving as fuel for courageous individual and collective action as citizens of a new kind of global community. This hope continues to motivate my work. ~cj, Seattle, February 2009

Year of the Tiger, 2010 62x62" Depicts 3200 toy tigers, equal to the estimated number of tigers remaining on Earth. The space in the middle would hold 40,000 of these tigers, equal to the global tiger population in 1970. Zoomed in closer:   Gyre, 2009 8x11 feet, in three vertical panels Depicts 2.4 million pieces of plastic, equal to the estimated number of pounds of plastic pollution that enter the world's oceans every hour. All of the plastic in this image was collected from the Pacific Ocean. Partial zoom: Zoomed in further: Detail of the top of Mt. Fuji: Viewed up close: Detail from a dark area in the wave: Viewed up close:: Detail from the colored area under the wave: Viewed up close: One more detail: Viewed up close:   Shark Teeth, 2009 64x94"; based on a watercolor painting by Sarah Waller Depicts 270,000 fossilized shark teeth, equal to the estimated number of sharks of all species killed around the world every day for their fins. Partial zoom: Zoomed further: Zoomed further: Detail at actual print size:   Tuna, 2009 64x115"; made from nineteen watercolor paintings by Sarah Waller Depicts 20,500 tuna, the average number of tuna fished from the world's oceans every fifteen minutes. Partial zoom: Zoomed further: Zoomed further: Detail at actual print size: