Internationally Award Winning Artist
I Heart the Planet
2019 3 x 8” 8 x 20 cm Hand Pulled Serigraph 13 Stencils Edition 100 A.P. 4
'I Heart the Planet' was created, to be an abandoned art project. It is an an act of hope for our home, the planet earth.
The inspiration for ‘I Heart the Planet’, was a direct result of storms and flooding that I ran into on the way to my art exhibition, called ‘Pandora’s Trojan Horse; Exploring issues around Climate Change’ in 2019. Climate Change felt a little too real, and a little to right now, for this journey to an art exhibit about Climate Change. This really strange and disturbing coincidence caused me to think, on a very deep level about what I as an artist could do about Climate Change. I pondered this dilemma for some time. I was already creating artwork based on my concerns around Climate Change, but mostly I was preaching to the converted. How could I take a positive message outside of the gallery setting? I was not a celebrity with a large public voice, I couldn’t write a song that people would listen to. Then it occurred to me, as an artist, and even better, a printmaker, I could create an edition of 100 Hand Pulled Serigraphs called 'I Heart the Planet', to be abandoned in an act of hope. With the help of family and friends, the entire 'I Heart the Planet' edition will be part of an abandoned art project. These 100 original prints are going to be left at public locations in Canada, and around the world. No prints from this edition will be sold by me, or for me. The hope is to inspire others to treat our home planet with love and respect. My wish is that some of the 'I Heart the Planet' Art will be taken into the public buildings, where they have been left. Also that some of the serigraphs taped to lamp poles, or bridges, or at other random locations, find their way into the homes of Climate Activists, who are asked to earn this artwork through an act of kindness towards the planet.
To see where 'I Heart the Planet' has been abandoned so far, click the Link - 'I Heart the Planet; Project'
To see 'I Heart the Planet', being created by hand, as the image slowly builds up in 13 layers, go to my YouTube video by clicking this photo link
The multiple Climate Crises I ran into, on the way to my Art Exhibition about Climate Change
This Art Happening called 'I Heart the Planet’ Project, is inspired in part from a Climate Odyssey involving 3 separate Climate caused road blocks on the Trans Canada Highway, on my way to an art exhibition for my series "Pandora's Trojan Horse: Exploring Issues around Climate Change,' at a gallery in New Brunswick. The first detour on the Highway was caused by an accident due to a late April Snow storm near Kenogami, Ontario. By itself this was not too unusual. The second detour from the Trans Canada was at Deep River, Ontario. The actual highway was washed away due to extreme flooding in a nearby river. That night, we felt lucky to obtain the second last room in a Quebec hotel packed to capacity with flood victims. The next day we passed numerous boats being towed down the highway. This was unusual for that early in the spring. Later on the news we saw this ‘boat type’ being used to rescue flood victims. When we got to New Brunswick we passed a fork in the highway leading to Moncton. It was closed due to flooding, the third block in the Trans Canada Highway we had passed in just two days. Lucky for us we were heading to Westfield near Saint John, so this time we did not have to detour. As we neared the cottage we would be staying at, fortunately situated on high ground, we were driving past sandbagged houses, and then a compound full of army rescue equipment, moved in to help flood victims. At the same time as the flooding in Ontario Quebec and New Brunswick, there were raging ‘Spring’ forest fires in British Columbia. It felt like quite an odyssey in Climate Crisis, on the way to an Art Exhibition about Climate Change.
No Prints from this edition will ever be sold by me, or for me. They will all be abandoned by me, or by my supporters. This is a project to abandon the artwork ‘I Heart the Planet’ in the hope that this image might cause some people to think about what is truly important.