Despite the fact that the 2015 Ocean Awareness Student Contest is open only to students in 6th through 12th grade (and that it closes in just 10 days!), we’ve already had two students who are so passionate about making art that makes a difference that they’ve sent us their submission anyway.  And they’re only in 5th grade.

As a special treat, we want to feature the work of Pranav Vijay Chhatbar from Gujarat, India, and Richard Oh from Arcadia, California, because they are to AWESOME artists.

We think it’s incredibly important to educate, inspire, and empower the next generation of ocean caretakers with the leadership skills that come from art and activism.  A healthy and sustainable ocean can only exist with the work of every single person on the planet, but we can only work towards that goal if we can imagine it.

That’s where art and activism collide – artists and activists both work to imagine and create – in vivid detail – the world that they see and the world that they WANT to see.

People like Pranav and Richard, in just 5th grade, already they are visually communicating how they see, feel, and experience the world as it is and as it might be.  They’ve trusted their eyes, their head, and their heart, and when it comes to making a difference in the world, that’s the way to get started.

We are making our world an unsafe place to live, disturbing our natural balance. I am worried that someday in the future, like these animals , we will be finding our food in plastics and wastes. Please Protect our Oceans, else, the Ocean will cleanse itself, shaking us off!

In nature, we are very dangerous people because we trash things all around the beach.  This drawing represents a soda can that flows through the sea and ocean where ocean creatures get harmful and endangered by human’s unthoughtful behaviors.

Bravo to Pranav and Richard, and hope you all enjoy their art as much as we do!

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Wavemaker Feature: Pranav and Richard, 5th Graders