2021-2022

Worcester

Winners

Elementary School

Ari’s Artist Statement: “I made this artwork because I want people to know that you should stay on high ground when you see a flood. This is something new I learned in our extreme weather unit. I’ve never really created a band of colors before, and I tried that this time so the words would be more visible. I also layered pencil with marker to create a more interesting texture. I hope my message will help people stay safe.”

Ellie’s Artist Statement: “What I learned about extreme weather that I want to teach adults is that staying outside in a thunderstorm is dangerous. What I hope people will learn from my artwork is to not go outside during a thunderstorm.”

Middle School

Maria’s Artist Statement: “I am trying to teach people that the earth is in danger and that if we keep hurting the earth, we won't survive, and neither will the earth. As the weather is getting more severe, and more and natural disasters are happening, we may become extinct. I created my artwork piece almost as a warning that the earth is being destroyed and most of it is our fault. If the earth dies, then so do we. I created the artwork the way that I did so that it would emphasize the words more. I tried to bring out the best of my ability in my art piece and I hope that someday we will understand. Thank you for your time.”

High School

Angele’s Artist Statement: “Climate change is a hard subject to explain to those who don't want to hear about it. You can try and try to get them to understand but they still refuse to listen. That is why it is easier to draw or make a digital picture that those people can see to help them better understand where you are coming from. I made a poster to try and help those who push the reality of climate change away. The poster I made was influenced by the question "what did you learn about extreme weather and climate that you want to teach adults?" I addressed the question by showing broken earth and pointing out severe weather events, like heat waves, droughts, and heavy precipitation/ flooding. I'm trying to say that adults are leaving future generations to deal with the responsibility of fixing the world. I hope people learn that they can't keep putting climate change on hold and that they need to jump into action. I learned that even though people think that climate change is a faraway thing there are signs that it is occurring as we speak. What inspired me to draw my poster the way I did was the fact that many people today who have nothing to do with the massive production of greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide, usually have to deal with it.”

Lani’s Artist Statement: “I wanted to make a piece that was simple enough for anyone, including children, to engage with and understand so I thought the best way to address the challenge question would be to make an educational comic. In my work, the Earth (with a stable polar vortex) is talking to itself in the situation that it has a weakening polar vortex. The backgrounds that each planet is sitting in represent the normalcy of each case's environment as a result of the corresponding polar vortexes. I tried to make use of diagrams as my biggest explanation of the challenge question. I hoped that all could easily recognize the effect the vortex has on the Earth from far away through bold colors to distinct cold air and warm air by blue and red respectively. In the past, I have created digital art comics in both school and personal projects to convey information and messages and so I thought that making one for this competition could also provide a short and simple message for those who may look at it from a bus stop. I hope that people can look at this piece and instantaneously understand how a weakened polar vortex affects how the weather is experienced nowadays.”

Ryleigh’s Artist Statement: “Climate change is a worldwide phenomenon that is caused by the choices we as people make. People are constantly making decisions that hurt the world as a whole, creating a climate disaster. Doing this project has made me research and realize things about the world I haven't realized was happening. What I learned most during this that I believed should be shared with others is that our choices matter. Our choices don't just matter in the sense of just simply using AC in the summer but more than that. The bigger choices we make such as the fossil fuels we use to run our daily lives, the plastic we use to eat and drink, and the trees we are cutting down to consistently build houses. All those decisions can change and help our earth instead of hurt it if we just make those decisions better. In my artwork I wanted to show the major decisions we can make and what they do in a simple way. I projected that by having the same hand on either side of the canvas but the look of them completely different, one a creature with all the bad things that can affect our home; the other a simple hand showing what can help prevent climate change. In all I hope my artwork shows adults or all people in general how our better choices matter to us just as much as the world.”

Worcester

Runner-Ups

Elementary School

Colin’s Artist Statement: “What I learned about extreme weather that I wanted to teach adults is that extreme weather can be dangerous. I learned that if lightning hits a car, it doesn’t usually hurt the people inside because the metal frame of the car can divert the lightning around the outside of the car. What I’m trying to say with my artwork is that if you are going to be out during a thunderstorm, a car is a safer place to be than outside. I created my artwork this way because I like drawing with lots of colors. I was encouraged to write in bubble letters, which I don’t usually do. What I hope people will learn from my artwork is to be smart and safe.”

Ollie’s Artist Statement: “I made this to teach people how to stay safe during a flood. I drew this with colored pencils which I usually don’t use. I learned many facts about floods, including to stay calm, always have a med kit ready, and to not drive into flood water. I made this poster in four different sections, so I could fit four facts.”

Emily’s Artist Statement: “I did blizzards because I think it is important to learn about them. That extreme weather happens and we need to be aware and prepare for them.”

Middle School

Nawres’s Artist Statement: “What I was trying to say in my work is how the water cycle works and what are the steps for the water cycle to happen. I did my work the way I did because I tried to make my work a little easier to understand. The art competition really encourages me to do my work with art materials in a new way because what really encourages me is how my work will be when I am done. And if I will win or not. But even if I didn't win I had fun doing this. I was hoping to learn from my artwork how the water cycle really works and what are all the steps that are in it. I learned what would happen if we didn't have a water cycle. And what will happen is it will be hard for the plants to grow. And it will be really hard for us to water all the plants that are there. The water cycle is there to make it rain and the plants can have water and won't die because they don't have water. What inspired me is what I will learn from it and it was fun to learn much more stuff from the other people who are doing this . Because I didn't just learn from the work I did , I learned from the people who are doing this project with me and it was fun to learn all this stuff only from doing this project.”

Lexi’s Artist Statement: “My poster is to make people aware of wildfires and how to prevent them.”

Shayla’s Artist Statement: “I put my submission into this art competition to be able to learn and spread the word about the current state of the Earth. I tried to use different mediums in one piece to give different parts of it different textures. In my work I am trying to say that the Earth is breaking apart piece by piece because of severe weather. Some causes of that being humans/human actions. I tried to describe my concept while keeping the actual poster design simple but still effective enough to get the point across. Humans do multiple things that harm the earth even if we don’t know it. I was inspired by the idea that we should try and take better care of the Earth because if we don’t then it will crumble in front of our eyes. I created my artwork in the way that I did because I wanted it to be bold and eye-catching with some colors like greens and blues. I hope that people will see it and learn that the things they do or encourage such as overpopulation, pollution, deforestation, and burning fossil fuels can really change the environment by triggering things like soil erosion, climate change, undrinkable water, and poor air quality. Our everyday lives will end up changing dramatically as the weather becomes more severe since severe weather is also increasing the threat. Things like climate change affect all humans one way or another. We need to stop these things as fast as possible. Everyone can contribute whether it is something small like recycling or something bigger like getting off fossil fuels. I believe that we can all work together to take better care of the Earth.”

High School

Gabriela’s Artist Statement: “How will our lives change as weather becomes more severe? Well, as the weather worsens many natural disasters will occur such as droughts, floods, and wildfires which could be dangerous for us humans. Droughts can decrease the amount of water in soil causing the ground to become uneven and lifeless with no plants. Floods can destroy everything in its way no matter its size, transporting dangerous microorganisms into houses and making it dangerous to use any type of electricity in the house. Just like floods, wildfires will burn everything in its way, killing anything from plants to animals in the area. What I am trying to demonstrate is that these natural disasters can ruin everything that we call home. For example, the disaster that occurred in my home island, Puerto Rico in 2017. A category 5 hurricane called Hurricane Maria hit most of the island. Many people ended up homeless and with no money or jobs. It took many months for Puerto Rico to recover from this horrible disaster. Knowing this made me wonder what if another hurricane passes by. Many people think that Puerto Rico would not survive another hurricane like Hurricane Maria.”

Jae’s Artist Statement: “My design was geared towards the first question because it gave me the most leeway to figure out what I would make the design about. After giving some thought to what I wanted to teach adults, I settled on the impact of ice melting in the arctic. After doing some research I learned how massive the amount of arctic ice had melted really was. The fact that ice is melting because of global warming, regardless of how many people deny it, is a known fact among the well informed. However, even the people who acknowledge its existence still might not know the extent of its effectiveness on the ice that regulates ocean temperature and surface temperature. Through my design I attempted to show said extent and effectiveness of increasing temperatures.”

Lexi’s Artist Statement: “In art class we watched an excerpt from PBS Newshour from December 2021 about how currently the Thwaites Glacier is predicted to melt within the next two years and this will cause the global sea level to rise by two feet. After that it will cause the other glaciers nearby to start melting as well. This would lead to around 10 feet of global sea level rise. I was brainstorming about how that would affect us here on the Northeast. I realized that Manhattan would be affected and could become partially underwater. I chose to depict this image of Manhattan underwater using the iconic Manhattan skyline because I thought it would really grab the attention of people driving by a bus, and it might cause them to stop and reflect for a moment about what they could do to prevent this from happening. I am hopeful that the little acts of each person can create a greater impact on helping the environment and reversing climate change.”

Sarah’s Artist Statement: “This year, we’ve seen a lot of extreme weather, hurricanes, and wildfires all around the world, and I wanted to focus people’s attention on the way in which all of us are driving the climate change that underlies these extreme weather events through our consumption of fossil fuels. I wanted not only to connect these extreme weather events to this root cause through the consumer choices we make, but also to provide the viewer to experience how toxic our reliance on fossil fuels really is. I was surprised by how large a percentage of annual U.S. emissions comes from cars, trucks, and buses: nearly one third. On top of this, an additional 23% comes from industrial production, hence the smoke stacks in my artwork. We also end up breathing in pollutants from the emissions we create, which can be harmful to our lungs, especially for young children. We rely on our cars so much in daily life, hurting ourselves and our atmosphere, yet we continue to blindly ignore the damage we are causing. The glass of oil in my picture represents our consumption of fossil fuels in our daily lives, through driving our cars, and purchasing consumer goods made by polluting industries. the person drinking out of the glass represents all of us, myself included, and our collective blind consumption of these toxins. We need to kick the habit of guzzling fossil fuels and recognize that oil truly sucks.”