Welcome to our

Art + Earth Exhibition

Our Water, Our Plastic | An Underwater Experience at the Belle Isle Aquarium

The Earth’s water system is made up of rivers, lakes and oceans. It is a critical component of the global ecosystem and is heavily affected by human activity such as plastic pollution.

The Ocean Conservancy reports that every year, 8 million metric tons of plastics enter our ocean on top of the estimated 150 million metric tons that currently circulate our marine environments.

Whether by errant plastic bags or plastic straws winding their way into gutters or large amounts of mismanaged plastic waste streaming from rapidly growing economies, that’s like dumping one city garbage truck full of plastic into the ocean every minute of every day for an entire year. That much plastic is bound to have an impact on local watersheds and ocean ecosystems.

Single use plastic bags have an average lifespan of 15 minutes and take between 10 & 100 years to break up into microplastic (they never go away, there is no ‘away’).

Plastic water bottles, a top littered item in Michigan parks and beaches, take 450 years to break up. Please use reusable bottles when available and be sure to recycle the ones you do use.

Fishing line takes 600 years! Please be sure to dispose of it properly.

Our Water, Our Plastic | An Underwater Experience at the Belle Isle Aquarium was designed to allow us to experience life underwater. This is what our aquatic animals encounter in their natural habitat. This is a direct result of human plastic consumption. Please rethink single use plastic. Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. No action is too small.

This instillation is a collaboration designed and engineered by: Aly Melnik, Tom Drummy, Ed Jones, Rick Jacob and Steven Nett of the Belle Isle Conservancy.

**Onzie Norman** is a self-taught mixed media painter and wood sculptor from Detroit Michigan, Onzie has an energetic approach to interpreting various aspects of life, he manipulates and re-imagines ideas with mixed media materials, using paper, collage, paint, and wood to create distinctive bodies of work. To see more of Onzie’s work: https://www.instagram.com/carpentry_iz_art/

Where Shall They Go?, Emerald Green

Hi, my name is **Emerald Green**. I am a multifaceted artist that uses different mediums to execute ideas and tell stories. To quote myself, “We’re all just books. Chapter and climaxes, heroes and villains. Our choices are the ink and life is our setting”. This was Emerald Green and you’re NOT watching Disney channel, peace. To see more of Emerald’s work: https://www.instagram.com/r.jdr/

**Planting Diversity, Ana Trujillo Garcia**

Hello! I am **Ana Trujillo Garcia** and I am Senior at Lake Orion High School. I am president of NAHS and Art Club, Parliamentarian of NHS and, Secretary of SNHS and am excited to continue my artistic studies at University of Michigan’s, STAMPS School of Art and Design.
I am from Guadalajara, Mexico and choose to illustrate many of the wonderful flora that is native to Mexico. When my uncle and dad were growing up, they would plant lots of trees and now, whenever we visit Guadalajara, we see the same trees big and grown! Conserving this biodiversity is important, which is what is what this piece symbolizes.
To see more of Ana’s work: https://www.instagram.com/ana_banana10/

**Nepalese Woman in the Year 2074, Loralee Grace**

**Loralee Grace** is inspired by a lifelong passion for environmental and social justice, as well as years of educational journeys abroad. She graduated with a BFA from Kendall College of Art & Design in 2010, and makes paintings with oil on canvas or watercolor and gouache to create her ongoing “Futurelands” series. She's been painting figures donned with air filtering contraptions since 2007 in an effort to bring awareness to these escalating environmental and socioeconomic problems.
In recent years she's also been bringing a new approach to landscape painting by combining natural vistas with local textile motifs. Each painting she creates is an attempt to celebrate and pay homage to vibrant cultures around the world that shine on despite the destruction imposed by colonialism and the homogenizing forces of globalization.
Conceptually her paintings seek to address critical environmental and cultural issues of our time.
Loralee moved back to Michigan in June 2020 after a year in Melbourne Australia, settling in Metro Detroit. She is thoroughly enjoying becoming a part of Detroit’s vibrant, inspiring art community, and looks forward to painting conceptual murals along with other artists and local students.
To see more of Loralee’s work: https://www.instagram.com/loralee_grace_paintings/

**Untitled #1 Palm Springs from the Pieces of Peace Series, Asia Hamilton**

**Asia Hamilton:** Photographing landscapes and scenic views have been therapeutic for me. In the midst of all the world's problems, it is important to have peace and solitude. Nature has a way of bringing calm to a storm. Finding beauty in God's details is a true act of mindfulness. You take your focus off your problems and literally focus on the beautiful site in front of you.
This photography finds beauty in the power of natural resources. Wind energy is a source of renewable energy. It does not contaminate, it is inexhaustible and reduces the use of fossil fuels, which are the origin of greenhouse gasses that cause global warming.
To see more of Asia’s work: https://www.instagram.com/photo.sensei/ or https://www.photosensei.net/

The visual arts are a lifelong pursuit for **Jamie Feldman** that included various media. Right brain and left brain attributes have always worked conjunctively to provide control of the media to create a viable perspective on life and the environment. A remarkably diverse background in art, technology, and science proves especially advantageous.
Much of his formal art training was at the Interlochen Arts Camp over several years and the Society for Arts and Crafts that became the Center and then the College for Creative Studies. Yet, his dental, surgery training, and a Teaching Fellowship also played important roles. Dr. Feldman credits his knowledge of psychology and the physiology of human vision as significant in creating his visual art.
Currently, Jamie is a digital photographer, teacher and fine art creator. Even with extensive training and experience in film, his digital photography is largely dictated by his research in medical imaging, MRIs and CAT scans. Unlike the chemical reaction in film, creating a digital image involves collecting data and interpreting that information with software to produce a final image. Mastering the particular capabilities of the camera, lenses, and software allows for a unique perspective, meticulous exposure, effective composition, and giving the viewer visual cues to define the story.
To see more of Jamie’s work: https://www.instagram.com/dbajamie/

Terra, Sarah Griffith

**Sarah Griffith**, a Metro Detroit based filmmaker, specializes in creating documentary, experimental, and commercial videos. With a background in dance and a passion for environmental conservation, Sarah often incorporates these themes into her projects. Her work is characterized by carefully crafted cinematography and rhythmic editing with a goal to tell authentic stories, collaborate with other art forms, and inspire and inform viewers.
To see more of Sarah’s work: https://www.instagram.com/refractionphotovideo/

**Aliya Moore:** I am a native Detroiter who loves my city. Many times, I have seen people, myself included, take their problems and situations to the water and the motions of the waves always work things out. This piece was created along the canals of Belle Isle.
Aliya enjoys working with watercolor and acrylic paints and create pieces that are full of life, color and happiness.
To see more of Aliya’s work: https://www.instagram.com/artbyaliya_/

**Out of Sight, Out of Mind, Connery McDowell**

**Connery** **McDowell:** I am a self-educated painter, photographer, and model working across mediums to explore our relationship as humans to our environment. I utilize unorthodox techniques in photography including ultraviolet, infrared, and full spectrum to reveal the unseen treasures different wavelengths of light have to offer. My work showcases the sparse organic material still remaining in an otherwise overly developed industrial area on the Detroit River.
To see more of Connery’s work: https://www.instagram.com/connerymcmodel/

**Jack Griffin:** I am a mixed media folk artist operating in the Detroit area while daylighting as a high school teacher. My work often takes the form of collage — blending fine art materials (pastel, ink, acrylic), found objects (desks, cardboard, doors), and words. These pieces reinterpret their constituent objects – otherwise waste – as a manifestation of my thoughts and emotions on our present time and place.
To see more of Jack’s work: https://www.instagram.com/personplanted/

**Mushroom Cloud, Kennedy Irene Lanier**

**Kennedy Irene Lanier**: I am artist from the Metro Detroit area. I received formal training at Farmington High School and Oakland University and am inspirations are Elly Smallwood, John Larriva, and Ivan Alifan. My piece *Mushroom Cloud* fits into the theme of environmentalism by illustrating the dichotomy between enlightenment of humanity and destruction of the planet that is perpetuated by contemporary warfare.
To see more of Kennedy’s work: https://www.instagram.com/8earth8angel8/

My name is **Mariana Diaz Perez.** I am a growing artist expanding my horizons in different mediums. Art is a big part of my life because it allows me to express my interests and feelings. Art is everywhere, we have to open our eyes to the beauty all around us.
Mariana’s piece, *One at a Time*, brings awareness to single use plastic, marine debris and human behavior. The artist’s perspective is that the hand is reaching towards the bottle in order to remove it from of the water, highlighting the positive imact that humans can offer to ocean conservation.
To see more of Mariana’s work: https://www.instagram.com/iblame.mar/

**Hannah Tizedes:** Bringing light to plastic pollution in the Great Lakes is something near and dear to my heart. My art aims to bring awareness and education to the trashy bits washing up, while illustrating ways we can reduce plastic consumption habits at home.
To see more of Hannah’s work: https://www.instagram.com/thetrashycollection/

**Samantha Lewis** is an upcycling artist with a focus to repurpose everyday items into something spectacular across multiple mediums. As a solo exhibitor and seven-time ArtPrize artist, she is fueled by an attitude of environmental gratitude and activism toward a safer future. As a life-long Michigan resident, Samantha was inspired to design a sculptural dress to shed light on the fragile conditions of our lakes and rivers. She chose to create an eye-catching fashion piece as a subversive approach to modern conservation, that we can achieve activism through unexpected channels.
To see more of Samantha’s work: https://www.thefoundpenny.com/ or thefoundpenny.com

**Denise Phelps** is a retired teacher and self-taught artist based in Windsor, Ontario. Her hope is that her work will help others to appreciate the beauty of our fragile ecosystems and act to conserve our precious world. Denise created this painting for her grandson's nursery to connect him with nature from day one. To see more of Denise’s work: https://www.instagram.com/denisephelps03/

**Chelsea Cousineau:** I grew up working in my family's hardware store and developed my love for the beauty of wood grain at a young age. I am constantly inspired by nature and have combined my two loves by creating works of art using wood pieces to portray scenes in nature. Every piece is unique with custom made oil stains to enhance the natural beauty of the wood's grain and texture.
To see more of Chelsea’s work: https://www.instagram.com/detroitcraftswoman/

**Mushwa & Yellow Hawkweed, Mouillee Creek, Alex Gilford**

**Alex Gilford:** By packing-up my easel and painting in parks and wildlife refuges, I utilize them in a minimally invasive way. Through the practice of art as an outdoor activity, it is a goal of mine to strengthen the relationship between the arts and the natural and cultural heritage that these places preserve.
To see more of Alex’s work: https://www.instagram.com/alex_gilford_art/ or https://alexgilford.carbonmade.com/

**Justin Phillips:** This photograph was shot during golden hour on a wilder region of Belle Isle. It's a simple portrayal of the dying sun falling onto a landscape. I hope to have replicated the inner feeling of the beauty I experienced that day and invoke an appreciation for an untainted earth.
To see more of Justin’s work: http://justinisaiahphillips.com/

**From the Past… To the Future, Margaret Henige**

Margaret Henige is a fashion designer and fine artist with an emphasis on sustainability. Their latest fashion collection, “From the Past… To the Future,” was inspired by both single-use plastics and nature. This idea is shown within the split collection and within the tank exhibit in the Belle Isle Aquarium. The first three looks give single-use plastics, such as grocery bags, bottle caps, pad wrappers, and masks, a second life in the form of newly-crafted materials, while the second three looks are made up of sustainable material alternatives for the fashion world. These materials include Apple Leather, Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) certified cotton, and wood.

Margaret’s hope is to raise awareness and bring about change to the harmful throwaway culture seen within the fashion world, and the world at large.

To see more of Margaret’s work: https://www.margarethenige.com/

**Unto the Least of These, Claudia Selene**

**Claudia Selene** has spent her life immersed in the arts, including the visual arts, music, dance and acrobatics. She studied classical drawing, sculpture and anatomy in Chicago, at the Ravenswood Atelier and the Drawing Workshop. Her work has been shown in galleries in Illinois, Michigan, Indiana and Florida.
Her piece, *Unto the Least of These*, speaks to the delicate and fragile nature of what we are trying to save, next to the overwhelming roar of our species’ needs and desires.
To see more of Claudia’s work: https://www.instagram.com/claudiaseleneart/ or https://claudiaselene.com/

**The Tales of Dragon Fish, Sanda Cook**

**Sanda Cook:** Worlds collide each time Sanda’s brush touches canvas. Hailed as one of the most prolific painters in Metro Detroit, her work is both locally and internationally renowned. This is only fitting seeing how it’s this wonderful world that inspires her. Romanian-born, she studied art at the Brasor School of Arts. Sanda’s art serves as a window into her journeys through Europe, Japan, and the United States. Love and beauty are abstract concepts that become realized through the color and light of Sand’s paintings. Multicultural, metaphysical, and spiritual, her art is visually spellbinding and emotionally captivating.
To see more of Sanda’s work: https://www.instagram.com/sanda810/ or sandacookart.com

**Obscure Nature, Martina Sanroman and Kyle Sharkey**

**Martina Sanroman** is a Mexican-American artist who grew up in the suburbs of Detroit. She is a self taught artist who works primarily in acrylic paints. She paints with vibrant colors to depict characters which reference personal themes. She creates these works through a variety of artistic movements including visionary, nouveau and anime. Her main goal in art is to empower the viewer to take more chances and trust the process. To see more of Martina’s work: https://www.instagram.com/martina_sanroman/

**Kyle Sharkey:** I am a Detroit based artist who is a current faculty member at CCS, WSU, and HFC. My body of work is an ongoing investigation of culture and experience through the practice of Skepticism. My intention is to create a visual lexicon to redirect attention from unevidenced claims towards ideas that are evidenced to be beneficial. Combining image making with Skepticism uncovers the root causes of why certain beliefs, perceptions and biases are held. Particularly when claims are farfetched or that violate physical laws of reality that obstruct the search for as many true things and as few things as possible. To see more of Kyle’s work: https://www.instagram.com/kyle.sharkey/

**Amanda’s** evolution into abstract expressionism allows her to create art from her soul which is influenced by her life and the world around her. She often collects found objects to paint with or incorporate into her works. To see more of Amanda’s work: https://www.instagram.com/amandakossart/ or https://www.amandakossart.com/

**Waiting for Canopy (2021), Ian Solomon**

**Ian Solomon:** I believe the path to liberation is allowing our humanity to be informed by nature. The communal reconnection and reclamation of this natural state is what drives my practice. Using a combination of film, instant film and digital photography I create landscape and collage imagery to place my people where I feel they should be. My practice is a wish for worlds where community is free and outside.
To see more of Ian’s work: https://www.instagram.com/1anjohn/

**Waawiyaatanong- From The Ashes, She Rises, Hadassah Greensky**

**Hadassah Greensky** is an Anishinaabe (LTBB Odawa) artist and multi-instrumentalist living in Detroit, Michigan. She is a graphic designer and painter, bead worker, dancer, seamstress and fashion designer. Hadassah is a curator, focusing on events for the underserved urban Native community. She is the co-founder of Vibes With The Tribes and the Waawiyaatanong NDN Market. Through her art, Hadassah reminds viewers that Anishinaabek stories are intrinsically related to the earth, water and living creates. Preserving these stories gives us context for our environmental work.
To see more of Hadassah’s work: https://www.instagram.com/coolwatergreensky/ or https://www.instagram.com/vibeswiththetribes/

Student Voices

**Myrna Burkhalter** is an eighth grader at O.L. Smith Middle School. She is constantly drawing assorted characters, people and comics, usually in alcohol marker. She also enjoys experimenting with digital mediums (i.e., animation and graphic design), as well as playing around with gouache paints. When she’s not drawing, she plays the violin, acts in various theatre productions, dances and sings.

**Everyday Should be Earth Day, Rebecca Korn**

I’m **Rebecca Korn**, I’m trilingual; my dad is German and my mom is Mexican. My best friends are my brother who lives in Berlin and my lovely two cats I have at home. Other than art I am a gymnast and enjoy music particularly from the 70s and 80s. To see more of Rebecca’s work: https://www.instagram.com/beccakorn_/

**Alexandrea Bernal:** I’ve been doing digital art since 2017, though I do dabble in traditional art from time to time. I primarily focus on drawing anime-style characters, while sketching other subjects other times. To see more of Alexandrea’s work: https://www.instagram.com/admixalex/

**Amy Lin:** This piece of art depicts a polar bear stranded on a small piece of ice. Ice is crucial to determining the chances of their survival. They use ice as a resting platform when they go hunting for food in the ocean and to rest when traveling long distances into new territories. Without ice, polar bears would need to swim long distances and most would die of exhaustion because of this. In this artwork, the ocean blends into the sky and only tiny pieces of ice are seen floating around, showing how global warming has affected the ability of polar bears to survive. In a few years polar bears will become extinct animals if we don't put a stop to climate change. To see more of **Amy’s** work: https://www.instagram.com/cheap_pencil/

**Aiden Moses:** I'm a sophomore at Walled Lake Western. *Fish in a Bottle* is a drawing that I created to bring attention to marine debris and how it negatively affects aquatic life, our lakes, rivers and ocean on our planet each year.

**Ruby Rue:** When I grow up, I would like to draw a butterfly with sparkly wings & a purple body with light blue antenna. I like to color suns and I use purple, pink & red because those are my favorite colors. I like to use markers, crayons, paint, paper, and lots of tape!
What I like about Earth are flowers when they bloom. My art shows that flowers and plants are good for the earth because If you didn’t plant them then it would just be plain land and without trees and you wouldn’t be able to breathe.

**Mario & Luigi Save Earth Day, Harper Rue**

**Harper Rue:** I like coloring on coloring pages, making my own art, and painting. I started being an artist when I was 3 or 4 and ever since I got my first finger painting brush I took off with loving art. I love doing art with my grandma Judy, and my sister Ruby.

Hello! My name is **Taylor Trenta** and I am a senior at Lake Orion High School. Within my high school, I am an officer for the Art Club and the National Art Honor Society. I love to paint natural landscapes, especially Lake Michigan. My favorite medium is watercolors. To see more of Taylor’s work: https://www.instagram.com/taylortrenta/

**Surface Mining and Deforestation, Aidan Horne**

**Aidan Horne:** I'm currently a Senior at Lake Orion High School; I've taken ceramics classes my previous three years there. I particularly enjoy hand-shaping forms and throwing on the pottery wheel.

My name is **Rea Hajredini** and I am a 12th grade student attending the International Academy East in Troy, Michigan. I have been taking art since middle school, but I have more recently become passionate about creating it. I am currently in the DP Art program at my school where I have been working on my exhibition for the past two years based on the theme of climate change and the environment. Nature is beautiful and is something that we should not take for granted, as issues such as pollution are causing destruction to many habitats and natural environments. Through art, I am trying to convey this message and portray the importance of keeping the environment clean and protected.

Lend a Hand to Save the Land, Kristi Paul

Hello! My name is Kristi! I am a self driven and passionate person who wants to make a difference in my community, especially through the form of art. Throughout the years of taking art classes in school, I have learned that creating art has helped me learn not only more about myself as a person but also about the world around me and the diversity within it. In the artwork presented, I created an illustration of different people from the cities of Michigan that I have visited coming together to pick up trash in the community. Lending a hand to help an environment filled with amazing and diverse people is the first step to building a brighter future for everyone, and the generation following. To see more of Kristi’s work: https://www.instagram.com/kristipaul_/