NOTHING TO DECLARE /

COURAGE TO CHANGE

Choose your tune jukebox… 

I painted this in a nearby allotment for Pangea Seed’s Murals for Oceans project, a stay-at-home environmental mural festival during lockdown.

By shopping locally, understanding the origin of the foods we consume and the intricate elements which make up all the products we buy, we can inform the way we purchase and hopefully bring things back into balance on the planet.

Some things I wrote at the time during locdown when I painted this: In a time of isolation and uncertainty art and creativity are critically important tools that can unite, inspire, and amplify important messages to the masses.We may not be able to roam freely and there are of course devastating cuts to our incomes causing immense stresses, but there is a slower pace all around to be seen which is encouraging nature to wander in.

To me it feels like the air, the ground, the oceans, the forests and our wildlife are all having a holiday from the chaos we inflict upon it. Not only have there been amazing stories in our communities – people caring for one another in extraordinary ways, but also nature has come closer to the places where we’d normally be seen; Welsh mountain goats taking over the streets of Llandudno, Rare sightings of Fin Whales (among the largest of the whales) off the South Coast of France, Coyotes roaming around the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco and so many more… I wonder if these types of events will have an effect on our behaviours, if these correlations will strike a chord with people who aren’t usually environmentally minded?

This is a time which is encouraging us all to find our local food growers, to fix our things that are broken – seeking out the tailor/textile magicians in our communities and the makers of useful things… By shopping local and attempting to understand the origin of the intricate elements which make up products hopefully we can begin to bring things back into balance