planet Earth

Enviroartist was born in 1990 with the help of an over sized oil painting; illustrating the environmental problems around the globe. We had countess challenges, planet Earth has an enormous surface when you compare it to your living room; however, we managed to cover the entire globe with human debris, thousands of pollutants and toxic substances. An over sized oil painting needed to represent the over sized problem. With no formal training or any background in fine arts, it was an interesting challenge. I am a biology and physical education teacher and in my teenage years, I always looked at painters and artists as a strange, eccentric group of people. The popular saying, never say never must be true. The firs time I had felt the urge to pick up the paintbrush was in 1989, while I was watching the Bob Ross show on TV. He was teaching people how to paint oil paintings. His artistry was pure stress relief, calming and awe-inspiring. Mountains, lakes, pine trees, and endless sky were captured on the canvas in thirty minutes. The step-by-step instructions made it seem like anyone can do it, even some macho guys with limited thinking about artists. This is the one of my first landscapes and some of my modern paintings. These were my warm-up paintings. The real inspiration for a painting came in a form of a vision. The vision was powerful, short, and disturbing. I have never imagined an oil painting that looks like a Mayan prediction for the end of the world. I never really wanted to paint a painting like that; this was something I had to do. It took seven days, four to five hours a day to complete the painting; I even purchased the copyright for it. The copyright title say’s Mother Earth. I have just realized as I am writing this introduction, that when David Suzuki had sent me an autographed picture and a quote to support the next Enviroartist contest, he has written: “For mother earth” next to his signature. After two decades, the circle had been closed. First, I just wanted to illustrate the complexity of global environmental problems; however, that was not enough. I have always believed that it does not matter what kind of hardships or challenges you face, you can always find a way to solve the problem. It may seem impossible first, just like eating an elephant. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. I would never hurt or eat an elephant, but that is my motto. I am going to take small bites out of these mountainous environmental problems and will ask you to do the same. I know you have an idea that would fit on a sticky note and has the potential to improve environmental conditions. Please send it to me. I will make a focused effort to implement it. Thank you for reading my story, now I have to go and water my tomato plants that I started from seeds, all hundred and fifty of them. They are organic, from organic seeds and growing in compost. I do not use any fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides or additives. Pictures are coming soon…