At 7 years old, I entered one of the most artistic sports in the world: pairs figure skating. My next 13 years focused on telling a story with my movements on the ice while competing for Team USA.
When my career abruptly ended because of a dislocated shoulder, I filled my time creating art, and, eventually, one piece went viral on social media.
Soon after, I was struck by a powerful mural created by Brittany Wilder called “(Today Is).” The ongoing series includes Wilder creating a daily painting, in which she writes the date, followed by “and it never will be again.” For instance: Today is January 25, 2024, and it never will be again.
This work helped me develop my catchphrase — “For The First And Only Time” — which I went on to use in hundreds of educational videos seen by millions of people.
If art influenced me to become an environmental content creator focused on positivity and progress, could it also help the rapid cultural shift toward a fossil fuel-free society that studies say we need?
To find out, I talked to artists focused on environmental “artivism”— where art meets activism — to see if art can save our planet from the worst ramifications of the climate crisis. Our conversations revealed four major problems that art can solve.
Art simplifies complex data or boring science in a visually appealing way that brings people together.
“Art has been critically important to a number of activist movements throughout centuries,” explained Maya Penn, an award-winning environmentalist and animator. “You can use abstraction and imagination to tackle complex subjects, and create more accessible information on these topics for all people.”
Most people are not activists or scientists but still care about important issues. If you can’t understand a research paper, perhaps you can appreciate a painting about it.
“Environmental and climate issues can often be dry and difficult to grasp,” adds Jocelyn Salim, an illustrator and preschool art teacher from Singapore. “I use my art to create a bridge, making these important topics more accessible and engaging.”
A fantastic example comes from Kaanchi Chopra, an Indian artist, designer, and photojournalist, who created “At a Floral Pace,” a series of nature-inspired tapestries hung in urban areas devoid of greenery. She told me that in major cities, “trees are indicators of wealth disparity with affluent neighborhoods significantly greener than areas with marginalized communities.”
U.S. communities of color have an average of 33% less tree canopy coverage, according to a report from Scientific American, a fact widely unknown. Unless you’re traveling through neighborhoods counting trees, you wouldn’t know there’s a better way.
Chopra’s work addresses these inequalities, which in turn, she hopes will “challenge the intentional neglect of natural spaces by our city planners … [igniting] a movement for urban rewilding.”
Art makes the same information accessible across ages, education levels, languages, and cultures.
Issues like the climate crisis are complicated, yet most reports are in English and full of technical industry language, making information hard to understand across cultures, languages, and education levels.
In one of the most famous climate-inspired art pieces, “Climate Stripes”, Professor Ed Hawkins took average yearly temperatures since 1850 and represented them through stripes ranging from dark blue (coldest years) to deep red (hottest years). These attention-driving stripes have appeared on everything from face masks to bicycle paths. It’s hard to conceptualize 150 years of temperature data, but it’s a lot easier to connect with his color-filled visual representation.
Art enables us all — from the amateur to the expert — to convey our thoughts in the real world.
Amanda Wu, a Queens, New York-based artist said she knows “art can start important conversations which lead to more people learning about what’s happening to our planet.” If openly sharing our feelings is challenging, then creating and appreciating art can fill that void.
Climate topics are hard to bring up in normal conversation out of fear of an argument, lack of knowledge, or not wanting to be a “buzzkill.”
Yet Tolmeia Gregory, a UK-based artist and activist who started creating climate GIF stickers to use across social media, points out that one of art’s biggest strengths is turning our emotions into tangible change.
“The climate crisis is the most important issue of our lives,” Gregory said, “and so I believe it needs to be raised at every possible opportunity.”
Art validates our experiences and supercharges us into making the world a better place.
While camping, Addison Mehr unzipped his tent to find smoke-filled skies from a wildfire that he narrowly survived. His brush with a climate catastrophe inspired him to “transform the conversation around climate.”
Mehr is the executive producer of Projecting Change, a photographic drone and light show that displays compelling visuals illustrating loss of biodiversity caused by climate change.
“My hope is where words fail, art can prevail,” Mehr said about his initiative, which shines impactful art pieces onto prominent walls to create shareable cultural moments.
Artist and climate justice advocate Francesca Willow is no stranger to big performances either, training as a dancer before merging her skills into the climate space. She feels that, “To create a new world we must be able to dream and imagine better, then work to make it reality.”
The world’s next chapter depends on better policies, actions, and imagination. Willow adds that art across all mediums, “invites us to dream bigger about the kind of future we could build.”
A version of this article was originally published in The 2024 Art Edition of the Goodnewspaper. Get your own Goodnewspaper by becoming a good news subscriber today.