Click on the image or artist name to view each individual Artist Profile on The Royal List.

Hibernation, a state of greatly reduced metabolic activity, lowered body temperature, and heart rates slow down, adopted by certain mammals as an adaptation to adverse winter conditions. Hibernation protects the animal from cold and reduces the need for resources during the winter season when food is scarce. It’s the premise of nature’s self defense for many living species to pause against the harshness of winter. A survival mechanism, a force to regeneration, a rebirth.

In a hibernation state, animals rely on the natural environment more than ever. Hibernating in the times of public health, climate change, humanitarian crises, the human condition is subdued by environmental anxiety. We are hugging our ears to the soil in deep sleep and we hear the distant gallop of the four riders of apocalypse, the widening of the ozone hole, the global temperature rising one degree at a time, the melting glaciers under our skin.

The Environmental Protection Agency of the current government administration just announced it would begin the formal process of selling leases to oil companies allowing oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. While many reversing actions of the government strive to undermine science, dismantle the major climate policies and roll back rules governing the clean air we breathe, the water we drink, carbon dioxide emissions, wildlife and toxic chemicals, we recuperate, and redefine our purpose. We shed our skin to reach the new light of the spring and a new self.

We are teetering on the brink of the borderline between the dark side, and the bright side, the fears and anxieties, the shadows of the underbelly of our collective psyche and the enlightenment, renaissance we desperately need again. While in the rapid eye movement we still have our nightmares, having our principles and ideals challenged and bastardized, we are slowly approaching the light of the dawn. We do hope with the natural force of resistance under our skin. Nature will always find a way to bring new growth, new life, new hope.