I met this wonderful artist when I was at the Climate Reality Conference in Toronto this past July.
Her name is Suendrini Goonesekara and she is an up-cycle textile artist. She makes AMAZING landscapes out of recycled textiles.
But this September she is applying her skill towards a similarly AMAZING climate change art installation that will be displayed at the NewWaves Music Festival held at the Sandbanks Provincial Park in Ontario.
This installation is going to inspire those who see it. It is interactive & thought provoking. There's a great description of it on the festival website. I highly encourage you to read up on it, and GO to the festival if you can. If not, the write up helps you to envision her creation.
HERE IS THE WRITE UP.
Reading this, you can see that not only is it going to be an evocative piece of art...it is also an invitation to passerbys to explore the implications of climate change...and to realize the solutions.
Those with a creative bent definitely have a roll to play in the name of Climate Action.
Suendrini has kindly offered to include mention of my blog/comic on her art instillation. A wee bit of artist-writer collaboration...which is just SO COOL.
Both of us are using our respective skills to draw attention to climate change and the need for action now.
There are so many impacts to consider...extreme weather events, changing ecologies, loss of habitat and animal species...
Health risks.
Have you looked up the health implications of climate change? Food and waters systems will be impacted.
Just, you know, the things we need to live on.
But there are also unsettling disease implications.
Al Gore talked about this at the Conference. He noted how with the increased warmth, disease vectors change. Mosquitos, ticks, viruses--these guys find this new warmth sooooo delicious. They'll go farther afield, live long and prosper...bringing negative health impacts along with them...
The ticks made the news this season, didn't they? Because they'd increased their range.
Why was everyone so surprised? That's Climate Change, folks!
"Climate Change is a medical emergency" #CRinCanada Disease vectors change, affecting animals and humans
— Julie Johnson (@JulieeJohnsonn) July 9, 2015
And JELLYFISH. Jellyfish are going to be really happy, too.
I realize that jellyfish don't carry disease, per sea, and I actually think they can be kinda pretty, floating as they do all gelatinous and dreamy...
But I don't think we want the oceans to be filled with more jellyfish swarms. Ick.
I'm not a visual artist, but I'd like to propose someone starts putting jellyfish images all over the place, Banksy-style. With signs that say: The Jellyfish Era.
Because that's where we seem to be headed: The Jellyfish Era. It seems an appropriate warning. Kind of dystopian/sci fi. The Rise of the Jellyfish! The Jellyfish Swarm!
Like the Borg from Star Trek, only...without the mind control...and gooier.
Coming to clog an essential nuclear power plant water pipe near you!
Or perhaps it will be: jellyfish for breakfast, lunch and dinner?
In any case, fellow creatives, it's time to use your talents to get the word out. Write poems! Write stories! Write blogs! Make art! Put it on the web! Take it to the festivals!
The Road to Paris is coming up. World Leaders will meet Nov-Dec to discuss Climate Change.
Artists are also participating in ARTCOP21. In Paris, there will be a city wide climate festival of art!
You don't have to sign up to join in on this idea.
The entire fall season needs to be a Climate festival! This festival of united hearts and minds can take place anywhere!
GO MAKE ART!
This is the time for climate change art awareness!
SO GO MAKE ART RIGHT NOW!
PS. Since publishing this blog post I have since found out that Suendrini's submission to ARTCOP21 has been accepted!
So now her art installation will be a part of the global art movement, centred around the Paris Climate Change talks.
And I get to vicariously experience this through her...and a little bit of me, via my comics, gets to join in! SO EXCITING!
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