11th Contest (2020)

A chameleon is an animal that changes its body color in response to the environment. We live on the earth like a giant chameleon clinging to this planet. Whether it becomes colorful or dim depends on ourselves.

A particularly humorous piece with a chameleon disguised as the earth, spawning new life on its back, drawing energy from the earth. Underneath are serious environmental problems, but on the upper side one sees hopes for the future that the Earth is still alive, and a strong message that we need to protect this planet, our source of life. A wonderful artistic sense of drawing the whole picture in blue, inserting flashes of red.

Early on a clear morning, my sister says to our dad, who was getting ready to go fishing, “Let’s go.” Upon arriving at the quiet beach, she hurriedly threw the fishing line in the ocean. But she catches a plastic bag! Suddenly we heard a voice from the ocean―This is all your fault!

In the bottom part of the painting one feels the terrifying coldness of the seabed and wants to look upward. The handling of light is marvelous, creating a sense of movement even though the entire painting is quiet. The moment I noticed that the floating objects were plastic bags, and there are absolutely no lifeforms around, I felt lonely and terrified. But discovering the boat on the surface gives a sense of relief, showing hope that there must still be something we can do. The plastic bags look like melted icebergs. Perhaps the painting is indirectly expressing the impact of our actions on the environment.

People around the world should get together and start protecting our planet, which is in danger. Humans impact the physical environment in many ways: overpopulation, pollution, burning fossil fuels, and deforestation. Changes like these have triggered climate change, soil erosion, poor air quality, and undrinkable water. If we continue with our earth-destructing habits, our planet will be full of unhealthy gas and garbage. Trees contribute to our environment by providing oxygen, improving air quality, achieving climate amelioration, conserving water, preserving soil, and supporting wildlife. Planting and taking care of our trees, plants, flowers can help clean our environment. We should protect our only chance of life, which is our planet, by taking care of our environment and our home. Not protecting the environment is denying the reality of global warming, and the danger of our world. A Clean Environment Is Essential for Healthy Living.

What I wanted to express through my drawing is the dream most of us have about “the perfect earth” and the fantasy of everything changing so magically and instantly. Like, radically, oceans being clean, air being pure, nature taking place again, people being concerned... The truth is that for all of this happening, we’ll have to fight. Because, although loads of people have said it, we have reached too far, and not for a good way. I think this fantasy is very far away if people keep acting like nothing is happening. But if we insist, together, we will reach our dream.

What we see here is the polluted earth shedding its old skin and regaining its original beauty. It is a poignant cry from the child, that this crisis situation on Earth must somehow be resolved, and that the future should shine brightly. The subdued colors are placed in the lower half of the image and brighter colors in the upper part, creating dynamism in the painting, and even a sense of time in that the earth is rotating toward the future. The earth is made to resemble a costume. Excellent design aspect.

Birds! We feel nothing while saying “birds.” Do we know what birds actually are? No we don’t know what are birds. They are a part of nature. They have their families. Lives like humans. Humans are locked in their home due to COVID-19. Now they can feel how birds are feeling when they are put in a cage.

Whether inside or outside the cage they are all the same variety of bird but are stressed differently according to the situation. For the first time in our lives we humans have become aware of this, being unable to go outside of our cages, or homes, in the coronavirus lockdown. We always said we should put ourselves in the animals’ shoes, but were we really doing that? Wasn’t the idea entirely self-centered in the first place, putting humans first? The painting sends out that message in vivid colors. A painting that captures 2020 well.

My picture shows the natural were created to make our world beautiful. Living in a good environment is be happy and delightful. A simple life of coexisting with nature and dependence between people and the natural environment. People depend on each other and help each other to preserve the beautiful environment which is a way to live a happy life.

The Earth is an imperfect place. There are many problems such as air pollution, deforestation, and wild-animals extinction. The Earth is, nonetheless, the only place among hundreds of planets and stars we are living in. My drawing shows people across the nations with different backgrounds and abilities – like children, the elderly, and even people with disability – working hand-in-hand to stitch the Earth’s wound back together. It is now the time for everyone to help restore our one and only Earth for future generations.

The painting shows the unique perspective of the child, as the earth takes on an extraordinary shape, showing that the painter was thinking out of the box that the earth should always be round. Every year we see many entries based on the earth motif, but the children come from different backgrounds and pick different eras. This entry is very much “this year” as many people, young and old, men and women of all races, are working together, furiously trying to repair the Earth and make it round again. The painting also clearly conveys the message that the world is connected.

Every holiday, my parents took my sister and me back to the fresh air and peaceful village, leaving the cramped, smoggy city. Knowing this, our grandmother went to the garden to pick grapefruit leaves, lemongrass, holy basil, grilled locust and then boiled them all together to make water for washing hair for my sister and me. The scent of leaves and locust imparts a pleasant fragrance and soft feeling to our hair. After having our hair washed, we just pulled our hair and joyfully breathed in. When we returned, our grandmother picked a few bundles of leaves and locusts for us to take back to the city to use a little at a time.

It is not a lavish life of luxury that children want. Rather, with a child’s perspective, the painting cries that we can be happy enough by just with water in the well, having fruit, and being with the family we love. There is enough happiness in a simple life and our memories. The painting reminds us of these things that we adults often overlook but shouldn’t. The colors are outstanding, being calm yet suggesting there can be a bright future.

I once asked my mother why there is a pipe sticking out of the back of every car. She told me that it was the exhaust gas from a car burning gasoline. Now the world is full of petrol cars and the exhaust gas from cars is polluting the air. At the same time oil resources are drying up. Electric cars will be the future but only a small number of charging station exist in the city. People have no choice.
We saw a lot of big windmills on mountains. In cities and villages, we also saw more and more dark blue solar panels. I hope we can make full use of green and eco-friendly renewable energy to protect the environment.
Every spring I go to my grandma’s house for my holidays but no power poles there. In the future, I hope we could build a lot of public charging stations around the world so that we can drive our electric car to my grandma’s house and anywhere.

An electric car somehow blends in to an age-old landscape, yet still stands out due to its familiarity. I felt the child’s message is that introducing the latest environmentally friendly technologies into our daily lives is something we should strive toward the future. The power probably comes from the windmills on the mountain tops. The message is “Respect nature, and live in harmony with it, using nature’s energy.” The unique touch is also eye-catching and is much like that of Chinese ink paintings.