Student’s Artwork to Be Featured in Mural Festival Focused on Ocean Conservation
February 21, 2017Cooper Bodeo-Lomicky, a 9th-grade student in Greenville, South Carolina, will have his artwork showcased at Sea Walls: Artists for Oceans, a public art festival in Napier, New Zealand from March 17-27, 2017.
The Sea Walls program is hosted by the PangeaSeed Foundation, whose mission is to harness the power of art, science, and creativity to generate awareness and stimulate dialogue to inspire and affect positive change surrounding global ocean environmental issues. The New Zealand event will feature large-scale public murals by national and international artists that highlight pressing marine problems affecting the country.
Cooper’s artwork, “Escape,” was selected for the Sea Walls event by Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Programs. As a PangeaSeed partner and festival supporter, Bow Seat was invited to choose a winning art piece from its annual Ocean Awareness Student Contest to reproduce as a mural for the New Zealand event. Cooper received an award in Bow Seat’s 2016 Contest.
“Through vivid colors and imagery, ‘Escape’ shines a spotlight on one of the greatest threats to the health of our oceans and marine life today: plastic pollution,” said Alyssa Irizarry, program director at Bow Seat. “I am honored to be adapting Cooper’s piece into a mural at the New Zealand Sea Walls event; he should be proud that his work is representing the voice of youth among a team of international, professional artists working for the protection of our oceans.”
“I hope my drawing impacts the viewer on an emotional level and makes them aware of the pollution our species has caused,” said Cooper. “The animals swimming away from the plastic represents hope for the future because we still have time to repair the damages; however, we will not be able to save these magnificent animals if we don’t act quickly and with coordination.”
To commemorate Cooper’s involvement in the Sea Walls event, Bow Seat is selling prints of “Escape” online. One hundred percent of proceeds will be donated to Cooper to support his creative ocean advocacy efforts.
About Sea Walls: Artists for Oceans
Sea Walls: Artists for Oceans is a groundbreaking public art project created by PangeaSeed Foundation and supporting artists to help bring the beauty and the plight of the world’s oceans into the streets around the world. Collaborating with internationally renowned artists, large-scale murals focus attention on pressing issues such as overfishing, plastics and pollution, global climate change, and habitat loss.
About PangeaSeed Foundation
PangeaSeed Foundation is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization whose mission it is to harness the power of art, science and creativity to generate awareness, stimulate dialogue, change perception, and inspire positive change around pressing ocean environmental issues. Forging a synthesis between creative expression, nature, and society, PangeaSeed Foundation (re)connects individuals and communities with our planet’s most important ecosystem. – The Ocean.