Where Science, Art, and Fitness Meet: Help Send Better Living Member Leslie Sobel to the Yukon!

Leslie getting ready for the Yukon

For the past few months, Better Living Fitness Center member and visual artist Leslie Sobel has been here five days a week -- participating in Full-Body Fit three times a week as well as Vinyasa Flow Yoga, and Strength and Tone on Tuesdays.

Her reason for all this effort is both inspiring and surprising. This May, Leslie, who is fifty-five, will be traveling to the Eclipse Ice Field in the Yukon with a team of climate scientists.

Then, when she gets back to her Ann Arbor studio, Leslie will create paintings that will visually document the fragile ecosystem of the Ice Field, which is part of Kluane National Park.

“By collaborating with climate scientists as an artist, I want to make people aware of places that are fragile and disappearing as a result of human-caused climate change,” Leslie says. “I think people are aware that the glaciers in Glacier National Park are disappearing, but I don't think as many people are aware of the threat to this ice field, which is the largest non-polar ice field on the planet.”

“The other thing is, glaciers may be hostile to humans, but they're also incredibly beautiful. I want to share that beauty with as many people as possible before it's gone.”

"Bleeding Fjord," by Leslie Sobel

Creating art to document and celebrate the work of science isn't a new thing for Leslie, who is the only artist in a family of scientists. Leslie's mother was a chemist and middle-school science teacher, her brother is a geologist doing field work in Central Asia, and her father, at eighty-nine years old, is still active in his career as a physicist.

“My whole approach to my art has been linked with my passion for science, ever since I was a kid,” Leslie says.

During her upcoming Yukon trip, Leslie will need to keep up with the climate scientists as they hike and ski the glacier taking core samples. Leslie and the scientists will also be camping on the glacier, in temperatures as low as forty degrees below zero.

In order to get ready for the challenge and to be safe on the trip, Leslie hasn't just been working very hard to get into the best possible shape. She also needs to raise roughly $10,000 to cover everything from very specialized camping equipment and cameras to the cost of her transportation.

"Breakthrough Melt" by Leslie Sobel

We believe in protecting our planet, and we believe in Leslie, so Better Living Fitness Center has made a donation to help Leslie get to the Yukon for this hugely important project. If you'd like to support her as well, just click here to make your donation before April 15. Or, if you like the pictures of her work in this blog post, you can support Leslie and claim one of her paintings for your own collection during her studio sale this Sunday, April 2.