Big Oil, Global Warming, and a Calculated Stitch is the culmination of works completed during my artist residency, inspired by the adverse effects of global warming and historical medical instruments, and created using textile techniques and medical plastic waste.
For my residency, I researched fossil fuel industry documents from the UCSF Industry Documents Library, particularly reports from Big Oil companies and how they responded to government regulations. I also researched artifacts from UCSF’s Health Sciences Artifacts Collection. I was startled by my intense attraction to these historical medical instruments. I wrote about some of them in the news story, A Physician Views Health Sciences Artifacts through an Artist’s Lens.
My connections to medicine and art
I was fortunate to be accepted to UCSF’s School of Medicine in September 1975. I remember that time as some of the most intense, stimulating, and challenging years of my life. I completed a pediatric residency at Children’s Hospital in Oakland (now UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland), then spent the next eleven years in private practice. I had always enjoyed textile crafting, but I was becoming more motivated to make art from my own ideas instead of following someone else’s pattern. My passion for art led me to leave medicine and enroll in art school. Since graduating from the California College of Arts and Crafts (now California College of the Arts), my work has appeared in venues all over the country.
In 2013, I was back in the medical world, but this time as a patient. I developed pulmonary symptoms and was diagnosed with a chronic lung disease. I was referred to the UCSF Pulmonary Clinic for outpatient care. By 2019, my condition had worsened to the degree that I needed a lung transplant at UCSF. I continue to receive follow-up care in the UCSF Post-Lung Transplant Clinic. As a patient, I was a first-hand participant in generating medical plastic waste, a situation even more deplorable as I had already been making artwork criticizing plastic waste.
Research inspiration
When I submitted my proposal for the UCSF Library’s Artist in Residence Program, I was interested in learning more about the influence of Big Oil in global warming and plastic pollution. Fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas are the largest contributors to global climate change.
The late 1960s and early 1970s in the United States saw increased public and political consciousness around the need for environmental protection. By the late 1980s, President George H. W. Bush proposed amendments to the Clean Air Act that addressed major threats to the nation’s environment and health (i.e., acid rain, urban air pollution, and toxic air emissions). Furthermore, agencies such as the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the federal United States Global Research Program (USGRP) were formed to assess the impact of global environmental change and help inform climate policies.
Through the Fossil Fuel Industry Documents Archive, I examined dozens of documents that gave me insight into the fossil fuel industry’s opposition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The Global Climate Coalition (GCC) was the outspoken oil industry group that every major oil company belonged to and opposed policies to reduce greenhouse emissions. A 1995 news release from the GCC challenged the perception that global warming leads to an increase in severe weather-related catastrophes. The GCC operated from 1989 to 2002 and dissolved due to public criticism and a greater understanding of the role of greenhouse gases in climate change. Climate Change: Don’t Ignore the Facts, a letter by Exxon Corporation’s CEO Lee Raymond, asserted the importance of economic growth and that fossil fuels affecting the Earth’s climate is, in his words, an “unproven theory.” A Shell Oil publication, Shell and the Environment, stated that environmental concerns must be weighed against requirements and that governments should allow the industry to self-regulate. They maintain that market instruments are more likely to be effective than legislation and regulation. These industry positions were echoed in other referenced works.
The artwork
Plastics are made from fossil fuels. For the exhibition, I knew I would create works made of medical plastic waste discarded at UCSF. I worked with the UCSF Office of Sustainability to source clean, unused plastic leftover from the Medical Center’s operating rooms. I also sourced plastic from UCSF’s Laboratory Services and Pulmonary Post-Transplant Clinic.
Burning of fossil fuels is linked to increased ocean temperatures, and an increase as little as 2° Fahrenheit can be deadly for the world’s coral reefs. Corals form a mutualistic relationship with the algae zooxanthellae. Warmer temperatures cause them to expel the algae and, if sustained, eventually kills the corals. Instead of stunning colors, a skeleton is left behind.
For my first few coral reef artworks, I only used white plastic to create reef organisms. My more recent reef works contain plastic of all colors to highlight human consumption by the massive amounts of plastic discarded worldwide. Are we trading our natural coral reefs for our reliance on fossil fuels?
The Monarch butterfly, a regional species, is another organism affected by global warming. One of its migratory stops is in Pacific Grove, about 120 miles south of San Francisco. It relies on environmental cues like temperature for reproduction, migration, and hibernation. The quality of milkweed, its only food source, is diminished at higher temperatures.
As a textile artist, I’m always trying new techniques. Fabric manipulation encompasses many ways that a flat piece of fabric can be shaped into a three-dimensional surface by stitching. My triptych, Sutured, was inspired by a historical suture set from UCSF’s Health Sciences Collection that contains several curved needles secured to a scissors-like clamp. The needles are remarkable as the hole where you insert the suture is close to the sharp tip instead of the blunt end, as usually seen in all other surgical and sewing needles except for a sewing machine needle. I discuss this in my news story, A Physician Views Health Sciences Artifacts through an Artist’s Lens.
For the two outer pieces of the triptych, I transferred a grid of 1-inch dots to the back of a surgical drape, then used a curved needle, surgical suture, and needle holder to stitch the dots together in regular patterns to create topography in the front. The middle piece is randomly sutured. My use of these tools has a two-fold purpose: first, to satisfy my curiosity around getting similar results as I would with a sewing needle; second, to demonstrate to those who only stitch with surgical tools that it’s possible to create a decorative fabric with tools they are familiar with.
Final thoughts
The UCSF Library Artist in Residence program turned out to be a much more enriching experience than I could have imagined. There is a wealth of information in the Industry Documents Library about Big Oil, climate change, and the plastic industry. I was completely surprised by how moved I was accessing historical artifacts through the Health Sciences Artifacts collection. As an artist, though I am connected to my all my work through its underlying meaning in concept and/or materials, there are those few artworks that resonate with me to a profound degree. My interaction with the historical medical instruments was one such experience. I thrill for these moments for they are rare and unexpected.
Big Oil, Global Warming, and a Calculated Stitch is now on display on the main floor of the UCSF Kalmanovitz Library through June 2026. You can follow my work on Instagram @ruth_tabancay to stay up to date on my efforts to spread awareness about the impact of plastics on our environment through my artwork.
Acknowledgements
I want to express gratitude to the UCSF Library Artist in Residence team and collaborators, including:
- Polina Ilieva, associate university librarian for collections and UCSF archivist
- Dylan Romero, library operations analyst
- Sean McClelland, manager of technology innovations, for photographing and editing images of the artifacts
- Lupe Samano, university records and accessioning archivist, for assistance with researching the Health Sciences Artifacts Collection
- Jessica Crosby, outreach and marketing coordinator
- Wen Shen, MD, MA, for his assessment of the suture set
- My professors, Carole Beadle and Deborah Valoma, for their nuanced guidance to create my own artistic path
Researched materials
Below is a list of materials and articles referenced in the writing of this news story.
Burning of fossil fuels—Understanding Global Change. (n.d.). University of California Berkeley. https://ugc.berkeley.edu/background-content/burning-of-fossil-fuels/
Dana, G. J., AIAM, Association of International Automobile Manufacturers, Inc., Mobil Oil Corporation, & Berstein, L. S. (n.d.). Predicting future climate change: A primer. Climate Investigations Center. https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/qnfl0228
Earth Day. (1990). William Sanjour Hazardous Waste Papers. William Sanjour and the Bioscience Resource Project. https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/mjwm0231
Exxon, Raymond, L. R., & Exxon Corporation. (2016). Climate change: Don’t ignore the facts. Climate Investigations Center. https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/kxfl0228
ExxonMobil, & Raymond, L. R. (n.d.). Global climate change. Climate Investigations Center. https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/rtwl0228
Fisher, M. (n.d.). DeSmog. Global Climate Coalition. https://www.desmog.com/global-climate-coalition/
GCC, Global Climate Coalition. (1999). GCC agrees with AGU: Science behind climate change is uncertain. Climate Investigations Center. https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/nsfl0228
GCC, Global Climate Coalition, Accu-Weather, Sobel, J., & Davick, J. (1995). Leading forecasting group finds no rise in extreme weather; Challenges perception of catastrophic global warming. Climate Investigations Center. https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/trfl0228
Greenhouse gases. (n.d.). Understanding Global Change. University of California Berkeley. https://ugc.berkeley.edu/background-content/greenhouse-gases/
Monarchs. (n.d.). Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History. https://www.pgmuseum.org/monarchs
Shell Education Service. (n.d.). Biomass alternative energy. Climate Investigations Center. https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/zhfl0228
Shell and the environment (n.d.). Climate Investigations Center. https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/mgfl0228
The plain English guide to the Clean Air Act. (2015). U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2015-08/documents/peg.pdf
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (1999). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provides scientific basis. Philip Morris Records; Master Settlement Agreement. https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/kyhx0041
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2010). 40th anniversary of the Clean Air Act [Announcements and Schedules]. https://www.epa.gov/clean-air-act-overview/40th-anniversary-clean-air-act
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2024). Evolution of the Clean Air Act. https://www.epa.gov/clean-air-act-overview/evolution-clean-air-act
U.S. Global Change Research Program. (2025). U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP): Overview and considerations for Congress. https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R48478
World Wildlife Fund. (n.d.). Everything you need to know about coral bleaching—and how we can stop it. https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/everything-you-need-to-know-about-coral-bleaching-and-how-we-can-stop-it?&utm_campaign=wild-classroom&utm_medium=social&utm_source=pinterest