Biochar Drawing is a charcoal drawing buried underground—a heavy line of carbon set into the earth. Plantings thrive as an echo on the surface, marking where the biochar lies below, quietly holding carbon and feeding the soil. This earthwork sequesters carbon for millennia, an offering in the face of the climate crisis.

This project began in 2025There are three components: a progressively expanding earthwork; biochar workshops for small-scale farming; and celebratory events.

New Roots Community Farm in Charlottesville works with refugees and New Americans in support of their health, community connections and household economics through agriculture and food initiatives, and is supported by the International Rescue Committee.

I want to take joy in climate solutions, and make carbon sequestration accessible, tangible, and knowable. This project engages the community with a permanent work of art that sequesters carbon on a human scale and builds local knowledge of biochar for small-scale farming.

Trapping carbon in the earth is simple, almost like magic. Biochar Drawing uses this magic to conjure the resolve and mutual support we need to combat the climate crisis.

Biochar Drawing is a touchstone for its place and people who live nearby. It is a ritual offering, an opportunity to be together in the face of slow and fast-moving violence, and an idea that lives deep in the ground and quietly in the mind.