🎨 2023. 3. 21 How Three Months of Lockdown and Covid Inspired this Creation

Inspiration for this piece of painting:

During Covid, everything stopped—no riding, no outdoor activities, no volunteering at the panda base due to the lockdown. I never got the chance to volunteer even once. So, I spent a lot of time reading past news. My mind filled with images of rising sea levels, sinking islands, coral bleaching, and melting glaciers. I started to recall changes in the climate back at my hometown and the shifting colors and murkiness of the lake in front of our house on the grassland. I became very pessimistic, feeling like humanity was powerless. I started worrying about the future, imagining a world where we live in cities built on the ocean.

To cope with the boredom and my feelings, I created a painting: a train traveling through water, with only bones left behind—no food, no hope. Despite calling ourselves the rulers of Earth, in the face of harsh environments, humans are so insignificant. The current situation seems bleak, but do we really have no hope of changing it? Am I powerless to do anything?

Then I remembered something from my childhood. I was on an island in the Indian Ocean, where the coral was already bleached. I met a young boy named Little John, about six or seven years old. He was so familiar with coral planting, and you could tell he was passionate about protecting the ocean. I helped him move colorful coral to a rack and asked him, “Can we really change the ocean environment with this? We’re doing so little.” He replied firmly, “There are so many people in this world. Every person, little by little. Every day, a bit. There will be a good turn. Maybe not a good one, but we should do our best to prevent more bad turns. We must stay hopeful.”

Little John made me realize that while an individual is insignificant in the face of harsh conditions, billions of people are not. If we all do a little every day, the coral, like in my painting, will slowly grow back. Our world will be vibrant again, full of life.

So, after finishing my expression of sadness, I added Little John planting coral in the corner of the painting. Through my art, I hope to convey this message: Even though we are surrounded by the devastating news of climate change, we still need to remain hopeful and determined. If we work together, our planet will recover, even after it seems to be disappearing or destroyed. We will rise from the darkness and create a new, better life.

Draft