KAYLA PICKOSKI

Contrasting Times (2023)
Kayla Pickoski, 16, Kitchener-Waterloo Collegiate and Vocational School
(Mixed Media: watercolour, alcohol marker, coloured pencil, pen and marker and graphite pencil)

I created this piece of art inspired by the guiding questions, ‘I wonder about animals, people and the environment. Will there be enough clean air, food and water?’ and ‘What kind of world do I want to live in?’. The background is in an urbanized polluted city that represents how some parts of the world are now and where others are heading. A smoggy, gray, polluted city. The foreground is a mother nature-inspired figure. It is there to remind you that hope still exists to create a better world. The green hair represents a healthy and well taken care of ecosystem, (not brown or faded, such as a dying leaf on a house plant), along with the vivid, healthy, flourishing flowers, and the butterfly and mushroom that are embedded in the hair. Lastly, the blank face represents a clean slate, and a fresh start. The art piece as a whole also stands to represent that brief moment in time where everybody was inside during the pandemic and nature was healing and finally gave us a wake up call to show us that there is still hope to rebuild our ecosystem, and put our polluted lifestyles behind us.