Earth Day: "Earthwise art"

The Earth Day blues

When teenagers reach into their inner creativity to express what is in their hearts, we should listen. Of the 50 finalists, 42 expressed various fears in a variety of dark, very ominous ways. Only six chose a positive theme.

"Homeless" - Artist: Stuart Brookes (18) - Fleetwood Park Secondary School, Surrey, B.C. (Art Teacher: Carolynn Elliot) - April 2011, Colored Pencil, 46 x 61 cm: "If someone takes your home away where will you go? When we make decisions in everyday life, we must be aware that we are affecting more than just ourselves. Although realistically this would not happen, where do we expect animals to go once we've destroyed their habitat? Black bears often wander into cities looking for food because there is no more in the forest." Photograph by: Stuart Brookes, Special to the Sun

April 21, 2011 - The artwork is amazing, but the images are shattering. They speak of fear, death, pollution, deforestation, poison, garbage and greed.

The Earthwise art contest is a open-juried, province-wide call to teenagers to depict what the environment means to them. Two-hundred and fifty high school students aged between 15 and 18 entered, and 50 were short-listed as the finalists. The winners will be announced on Earth Day.

It is their art that I have been pondering, which you can see on the Vancouver sun’s website at Earthwise Art.

When teenagers reach into their inner creativity to express what is in their hearts, we should listen. Of the 50 finalists, 42 expressed various fears in a variety of dark, very ominous ways. Only six chose a positive theme.

Emily Lee, a 16-year-old from Sullivan Heights school in Surrey, has recreated Michelangelo’s Pieta, where Mary holds the lifeless body of Jesus in her lap. In her 'The Last Whale,' a fisherman holds the last whale in her lap. {continued}