I’m excited to be part of this amazing and important exhibition! RIA Links Artists for Systems Change A Climate Action Art Exhibition at the Lalande & Doyle Gallery at the Shenkman Arts Centre (Ottawa ON):
Climate Change – Passion to Action March 28 to May 2, 2022.
For this exhibition, local artists were asked to create up to three small posters that signify, through image and/or text, a positive action or attitude one can take to mitigate the warming of our planet. As much as possible, it is a “buy nothing” exhibition. The main requirement was that only posters made with leftover Tyvek paper they provided as a ground to work from would be accepted. The image I created was made with felt pen on recycled Tyvek and is titled “Yes We Can”.
You can join the fun at the Shenkman Arts Centre this Sunday, April 3rd, 1:30 to 4 pm. for the opening of two art exhibitions: Climate Change–Passion to Action, and Creative Reuse in Printmaking. Free and suitable for the whole family, this community-spirited show represents artists from Ottawa, Vankleek Hill, Cornwall, Aylmer and Wakefield. My poster will be on display along with 113 others created by local artists (Including a number of my peers at Enriched Bread Artists) and children, showing positive actions everyone can take in the face of Climate Change.
I had a lot of fun experimenting with drawing on Tyvek, a material I had never used before. It was very smooth, thin, and a bit crinkly, and captured the colours of my felt pens splendidly without too much smudging. I would compare it to drawing on something like vellum.
It is SO EASY to feel overwhelmed, powerless, and without hope in the face of the climate crisis and all the environmental destruction our planet is undergoing. Not to mention the human injustices wrapped up in all this. I am grateful for the positive stance of this art show and how it reminded me to look on the bright side. I wondered, how DO I look at this with a positive attitude? How can I take action? Then I started remembering some amazing people I have in my life who are taking action.
The figure in the poster is a superhero beacon of hope, sort of inspired by mother nature and also modelled after my very dear (and brilliant!) Friend Chelsea, who is working from within industry on innovations towards more green and sustainable energy solutions.
The images in the poster are inspired by the landscapes of my home province Alberta, which, after such a long time of booming as a result of their oil and gas, is having to wake up and look at strategies for renewable energy and a just transition into more environmental sustainability. It won’t happen in a day. Transitions take time. But I am truly holding hope.
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