Chief Maquinna Elementary School
I 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. I envisioned this 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.
I 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 I 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).
Each of the fifty-two pledges were highlighted 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’ (I luckily managed to catch this moment during the rally of over 100,000 youth in Vancouver) composited with local evergreen trees. The final piece is installed in the school’s entrance 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 I 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).
