Desirée was commissioned by Chief Maquinna Elementary to create an interactive, environmental art project with fifty-two of the school’s students. The intent was to parallel art-making with the science curriculum studying climate change.
Desirée envisioned the opportunity as a way to inspire creative exploration of how individuals could contribute to a more sustainable future and empower the students to participate in hopeful action.
The artist conducted a series of informative and inspirational sessions with the classes and then asked each student to draw individual environmental pledges; ones they personally resonated with and were committed to achieving.
The drawings were scanned to render digital files which Desirée merged into a mosaic design infused with satellite imagery of Vancouver and the surrounding coast (representative of the school’s location and geographic area in which the student pledges would most likely impact).
The artist then highlighted each of the fifty-two pledges over the final design to create a second stage of hands-on interaction for the students.
The digital artwork was printed onto 1.5” thick, sustainably sourced wood - with total dimensions of 6‘h x 4’w.
A additional 20” circular wooden print was three dimensionally mounted to the face of the artwork; consisting of the students photographed during the ‘2019 Vancouver Climate Strike’ (Desirée managed to catch this moment during the rally of over 100,000 youth in Vancouver) composited with local evergreen trees.
The completion of the artwork was fulfilled as each student painted highlights back into their individual pledges as well as painted metallic highlights into select portions of the digital mosaic design.
The final piece will be installed in the school’s entrance in 2020 as a legacy artwork to commemorate the grade six and seven classes, and their dedication to environmental stewardship.
*To compensate for the ecological impacts of creating the artwork, Desirée purchased 35 tonnes of carbon offsets through the United Nations Carbon Offsets Platform.
This project was supported by grant funding from the ‘Betty Wellburn Artistic Legacies’ (a Vancouver School Board Fund).
