Sustainability Art Prize 2019 Exhibition




Honoured to be part of the Sustainability Art Prize 2019 exhibition in April and surprised to win an award as well. Thank you Stem + Glory for choosing my illustration to win the Stem and Glory Choice Award. And thank you, Marina Velez, for organising the exhibition with such an important topic!


The Sea is Sick
Meria Palin
MA Children’s Book Illustration

There is no wealth but life. Life, including all its powers of love, of joy, and of admiration. That the country is the richest which nourishes the greatest numbers of noble and happy human beings; that man is richest, who, having perfected the functions of his own life to the utmost, has also the widest helpful influence, both personal, and by means of his possessions, over the lives of others.”
John Ruskin, Unto This Last

This illustration shows one of the outcomes of the changes which our oceans are undergoing. The ocean vomits plastic, which makes me wonder to what cost are we, using Ruskin’s words, perfecting the functions of our lives to the utmost? It is good that more people have access to materials and higher living standards, but we should also protect our natural world. Could we consider ourselves to be rich enough and then have also the widest helpful influence over the lives of others - other than human beings? Animals cannot read newspapers or warnings of plastic pollution, neither it is possible to teach them not to eat plastic. Yesterday plastic lids were found in birds, today in fishes, and tomorrow? From a selfish point of view, the worse thing with this plastic pollution is that as we eat fish and birds, the plastic gets into ourselves. Are we able to be noble and happy human beings, after consuming plastic waste?

There was a Climate schoolstrike every day in April in this exhibition!



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