Troy Payne
I grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, the son of working class parents. As a kid, my family spent nearly every vacation and free weekend outdoors on the ponds, rivers, and lakes of southern Missouri, where I learned to be comfortable in natural settings. In high school, we spent numerous weekends at the Vega family place on Pomme de Terre lake. After high school, Matt and I chose to attend college in southern Missouri where we debated together for four years, and I graduated from Missouri State University with Honors in History in 2000.
After graduation, I stayed in Springfield, Missouri, playing guitar professionally for four years in a rock band that frequented clubs throughout the Midwest. During that time, my friends and I spent a great deal of time in the Ozarks, particularly along the shores of Bull Creek. On our many adventures there, we cultivated our connection to the natural world. Jeff played in a band in Springfield as well, and we forged a friendship then based on creative collaboration and adventures in nature that has spanned a decade.
I left Missouri in 2003 to attend Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon, acting on my strong desires to explore new beautiful settings and to pursue a career associated with the study and preservation of natural spaces. At Lewis & Clark, I specialized in environmental law and ethics and studied under some of the most experienced and respected environmental law professors in the nation. I also served as an editor of the prestigious journal Environmental Law, the first environmental law journal ever published. In 2007 I graduated third in my class with a certificate in Environmental and Natural Resources Law.
After law school, I served a one-year term as a law clerk to a federal judge in Portland, and then practiced environmental law at the third-largest law firm in Portland.
During and after law school, I maintained close ties to my friends from Missouri, and we have taken numerous backcountry adventures together in such places as Crater Lake, the Redwoods, Sequoia-Kings Canyon, Boundary Waters, Glacier National Park, Olympic National Park, North Cascades National Park, Zion, Grand Canyon, and remote areas of Costa Rica. Through these experiences, I have also developed a love for photography and have honed my skills as a naturalist and landscape photographer in some of the most beautiful and remote places on the continent. The photography in the show is borne of these experiences.
I have published two articles on environmental law and ethics (linked below). We have worked thousands of hours since the Spring of 2009 adapting Cartesian Eco-FemDarkanism into a stage show that we have performed in varied settings such as art galleries, universities, law schools, and for professional groups.
I have a passion for ideas and particularly for human thought about the natural world. I believe that our current dialogue about the environment lacks a basic language for description of humanity’s true connection with the Earth that might lift discussions of the natural world out of the everyday realm of politics, which are too often subject to monetary compromise, into the realm of values and ethics. Jeff, Matt, and I have now developed a way to meld our professional and artistic experience by presenting our story: a story of appreciation for the long path that has led humanity here and a vision for an improved way forward that is entertaining, thought-provoking, and inspiring. We are very proud of this project, and I am proud to work with Jeff and Matt to continually improve the effectiveness of our message.
Cartesian Eco-FemDarkanism – Environmental Law – 2007
Remembering Rain – Environmental Law – 2007
Darkanism Explored: Fear of the Dark – Lantern Journal – 2012
