The Art of Conservation
2022 Edition: Climate
The choice of theme for the 2022 Art of Conservation was easy – while climate change has loomed in the background of every previous contest, it had not yet been explicitly the theme. But with record heat and drought in the news, and climate action taking on new urgency on the Island, it was time to ask the student artists to put their knowledge, passion, and creativity toward addressing the elephant in the room.
While climate change may seem a challenging place to find inspiration, the Vineyard’s young artists were more than up to the task, creating an amazing collection of sculpture, painting, photographs, digital design, and more. The 2022 edition saw a record number of awards, with 26 high school students, plus four middle schoolers, taking home honors. In a fitting tie-in, the winners were honored with an awards ceremony during the “Climate Week” finale event, held to celebrate the completion of the Vineyard’s new Climate Action Plan.
The Winner’s Gallery
First Place Awards
Painting & Drawing
Kamar Dehaney, Grade 11
Eliantra’s Sorrow
This is a picture of a character of mine, Eliantra. In her story she is poor and lived amongst the crows and wolves. She planted the trees as a way to show appreciation and it had become her favorite pastime. She really loves the trees she used to dwell in their shade with the wolves. However, someone cut them down, and she is distraught about the trees. With deforestation there arises two problems. Animals are becoming endangered and extinct because their habitat is being destroyed, and carbon dioxide in the air and there are no trees to take the Co2 in.
Camily Lara, Grade 9
Caroline Tuthill
Photography
Dylan Bowen, Grade 12
Turning a Blind Eye
It’s easy to turn a blind eye or give the world a cold shoulder. It’s easy to look the other way, and pretend what’s happening around us has nothing to do with us. But in reality it has everything to do with us. Not only does climate change include us, but it was created by us. Nobody’s missing from this equation. It doesn’t matter if you’re a field, a tree, a cow, or a little girl, in the end we are all a part of the Earth.
Above is one of four images submitted as a set – see the rest of Dylan’s work in the full collection
Mya O’Neill, Grade 11
Perception
Climate change requires a change of perception to be able to understand it fully. Looking from one perspective will not shape the entire problem as a whole. I understand and have learned that there are multiple causes and ways climate change is able to be what it is. Being open to learning about every different way and improving daily personal actions to better our world is only possible with a change in perception.
Digital Illustration
Crystal Zheng, Grade 12
Tick-Tock! Time is Running Out!
Climate change is happening throughout the world. It has also impacted the wildlife. The once beautiful green forest is turning into ashes. The increasing temperature will lower many animals’ survival rates. Sea levels are also rising as ice begins to melt. In my artwork, I want to use the hourglass to represent time. What we chose next is like a chess piece. We need to carefully plan everything to get the results we want. As an animal lover, I want to show we can still have a chance to protect the wildlife and help bring back their home.
Olivia MacPherson, Grade 10
The Burden She Carries
The piece that I have made is a triptych showing the evolution of environmental change revolving around a depiction of Mother Nature. In the first-panel Mother Nature is reaching for the earth, her arrival causing the lands to flourish. Her dress is woven by her creations. It showcases the crashing waves and the pearls gleaming from its depth, a belt of flowers delicately arranged by her waist, and grass growing from the soil at the bottom. A variety of flowers surround the edges of the panel. Life grows around her as she sees the earth grow. The second panel shows her on a more modern-day earth, carrying the result of her altered creations. A revolution of industry has shadowed the earth, and the weight of it is too much to bear. The ice of her dress is dripping and melted, and the trees she watched grow were chopped down and sold. The metal buried in the dirt and stone has been quickly dug up and used to make tools of violent power.
The smoke from the factories has sullied the air and covers the earth she can no longer recognize. The third panel is a possible future, one in which she was broken and torn. She holds the earth but it is too late to stop what has already been done. The panel is cracked and she is covered in smoke. She can no longer see what she lost. Some tried to stop it, but all they could manage was a few pieces of tape around the border. If we as inhabitants of this earth want to continue to live in the world we were given, we cannot put it all on her shoulders.
Sculpture
Hayleigh Lecoq
Coral Reef
Adam Miller, Grade 12
Solitary Sapling
Special distinctions
Painting & Drawing
Katherine Chvatal, Grade 9
Trash Island
Emily Gilley, Grade 9
Crumbling Cliffs
Erin Gilley, Grade 9
A Forest of Storms
Lily Haynes, Grade 9
Gay Head Lighthouse
Beth Jennings, Grade 9
Pumpkin
Alana Nevin, Grade 11
2 Worlds
Brooke Ward, Grade 10
It’s Not Just Our World
Photography
Victor Andrade, Grade 9
Broken My Heart Again
The trees are important for us humans, and even knowing that we insist on destroying them, this picture is an example that when we kill a tree we also kill ourselves.
Madeleine Bengtsson, Grade 11
Climate’s Craft
In this piece I’ve photographed a part of the cliffs on Lucy Vincent Beach, Martha’s Vineyard. As you can see, the picture focuses on the extraordinary formations of the cliffs, caused by forces of weathering and erosion. Due to climate change, the winds are much stronger, the sea level is higher, etc. This contributes to the intense weathering and changing of our landmarks.
Although the ripples of the cliffs are beautiful, they remind us that we are messing with the climate, causing the climate to sculpt this stark formation (hence the title “Climate’s Craft”). If we don’t act now to mitigate the climate crisis, landmarks like these will be lost entirely, along with the rest of our island.
Samanta Morgnerova, Grade 10
Glimpse to the future
The world as we know it is changing and soon all we will see is the mistakes of our pasts, trash will overflow our sights and we will regret what we didn’t do. I hope that we still have time to save our live before they crumple.
Sam Folts, Grade 11
Swan Lake, Act V
When I was walking by Sengekontacket pond I saw this dead swan in the bushes. I remember thinking to myself how beautiful it was, though its feathers were strewn across the ground and it sat at an unusual angle I couldn’t help but think how graceful it was even in death. Hence the title, Swan Lake, being in reference to the ballet show. To me this swan is a good representation of how we’ve affected wildlife from causing climate change. This animal lives its whole life being affected by us, pollution from being right by the road, houses built on the shores of its home, and less prey from fishing.
As humans we want to make everything bigger and better, because these advancements have led to so much environmental distress for the wildlife that’s forced to share a planet with us we have to take a moment to think. To ask yourself if you were just a swan on a lake wouldn’t you want better?
Hannah Murphy, Grade 11
Nature Interrupted
This piece connects to the theme of climate change because it shows how much our Earth is being affected by us. We are the reason for climate change, and this picture shows this. When I took this picture, I was shocked to see how big the gaps in the forest were, because I had never seen it from this view. I think this piece highlights the impact we have on the Earth.
Katie Ogden, Grade 10
Sign of the Times
Erosion of the East Chop bluff had been documented as far back as the 1800’s. The water’s edge is continuously shrinking as a result of rising sea level combined with erosion and storms continue to grow in intensity, both of which are results of climate change. These things have eroded the bluff to the point of danger and the road, East Chop Drive, was officially closed off to vehicles in 2018.
There have been many attempts in the past to stabilize the bluff, but unfortunately mitigation and restoration costs are only getting higher as the bluff depletes. For now, East Chop Drive remains closed to all vehicular traffic and signs, as shown in my picture, warn pedestrians to stay off of the eroded bluff.
Sculpture
Jack Engler and Adrian Alberghini, Grade 9
A Whale in Today’s Climate
Lilly Cabral, Grade 9
Untitled
VCS “Staff Picks”
Marharyta Morozova, Grade 9
Why is the Climate Changing?
Shealyn Smith, Grade 9
Two Worlds
Middle School Awards
First Place
Chase Panico, Grade 6
Climate Change
Roxy White, Grade 6
Doomed But Still Dancing
Special distinctions
Nika Montoyo, Grade 6
untitled