By Alaura Heikoop

My drawing shows a woman in the center of a body of water. She looks defeated as the water is starting to turn brown and trash starts to surround her. I wanted to draw something that represented water, specifically the problem we have with water pollution. I used a combination of blue and green to represent the water and natural environment, however, to me green can also signify poison or contamination, combined with the brown it represents how we are affecting our aquatic ecosystems. The trash littered around the woman are all common, everyday things, that are being carelessly dropped, thrown, or dumped into our lakes, oceans, and rivers. The woman, “water”, has a defeated expression on her face. I think when we talk about climate issues and how the Earth must feel we often think of anger or sadness, but I wanted to convey the exhaustion that must be felt, trying to hold on to the life and peace that is left. The woman is still blue in the face and some of her hair to represent that hope for what we still have but the green and brown water is getting closer to her and she is tired. I really want us to be cautious about our trash, waste, and human impact on our aquatic environments. Every living thing on Earth needs water to survive so we should be taking care of it so it can continue to take care of us. 

By Amaresh Ambika

The piece gives voice to a mother bird and her child, two elements of the local environment we can see and hear. I chose to represent the mother bird’s voice through what she sees looking down from above. Her aerial view of the landscape below becomes the expression of everything she feels but cannot change. My creative process began while walking through Cootes Paradise, and observing how birds travel from the woods and flying out to the city. I began to visualize how this might feel from above, and the perspective of a mother who has watched the same land worsen over her lifetime. The significance of this piece lies in the relationship between generations. A mother bird cannot explain to her child what the land used to look like. She can only show what remains of their home. The feeling of inherited loss, and passing on of uncertainty. I hope to instill the awareness that we are not the only species that grieves. By seeing through a mother bird’s perspective, the viewer is invited to feel this loss alongside her.

Anonymous

This is a poem I wrote from the point of view of rain to humanity. After hearing about how rain compared to the past is absent for longer periods of time and how it rains harder now, I wanted to write about the rain’s feelings with how climate change and air pollution has impacted it and its relationship with humans. I didn’t want to write rain to be all angry and antagonistic towards humanity and rather tried to write it like it was an old friend experiencing betrayal, as rain has been with all of humanity through thousands of years. In the end, what I wish for people to draw from this poem is to be grateful and care for the earth the best they can. 

Anonymous

This painting is an arts-based reflection on ecological empathy through the perspective of Rouge Hill Waterfront along Lake Ontario. The piece was inspired by my visit to the waterfront on Saturday, May 23rd, where I spent time observing the movement of the waves, the heaviness of the sky, and the emotional atmosphere created by the relationship between natural beauty and environmental uncertainty. I imagined Rouge Hill Waterfront speaking about what it continuously experiences: pollution, climate instability, erosion, and the pressure of human presence, while still demonstrating resilience and survival. The dark storm clouds symbolize ecological stress, emotional exhaustion, and environmental precarity, while the crashing waves represent urgency, resistance, and frustration. In contrast, the soft pink light breaking through the sky symbolizes fragile hope, healing, and the possibility of repair. I intentionally used these contrasts to communicate that nature can hold both vulnerability and strength at the same time. 

Anonymous

The artwork showcases two contrasting versions of the same scene. The first painting depicts a beautiful sunset over a creek, surrounded by marshland and diverse plant life, such as marsh grass, reeds, and lily pads. The water in the creek is clear and reflective, and the sun is shining over the water, illuminating the entire painting. The inspiration for this painting was derived from the natural habitats found around McMaster University and the Hamilton/Cootes Paradise area. The second painting depicts the same scene but in a more grotesque manner. The painting itself is slightly darker in hue, and many small details indicate signs of pollution—water bottles, plastic bags, cans, tires. This version of the painting was inspired by the exact same scenery and elements but looked through a more discerning and critical lens. The painting represents the importance of putting on this lens at times while admiring natural habitats and noticing signs of environmental pollution and cries for help from the surrounding ecosystems and species. 

Anonymous

This pencil crayon art piece is a close-up study of a beech tree afflicted with Beech Bark Disease. Surrounded by a graveyard of fallen and dying beech trees, this tree stands as though it is the last remaining survivor in its area. By focusing closely on the bark, I wanted to highlight the texture and visible effects of the disease while drawing attention to the vulnerability and decline of the beech tree. I chose the beech tree as the element of nature to focus on for this assignment following our nature hike in Cootes Paradise. Hearing how the beech trees are suffering a pandemic of their own, with no vaccination in sight, made me imagine how isolating it must feel to exist surrounded by death and decay. To know what your fate will look like, and to watch your own species in decline. That idea inspired me to portray the tree almost as a figure standing alone against something inevitable. I wanted viewers to sense both the loneliness and resilience of the tree, despite the damage it carries. The connection between disease and injury is central to the meaning of my piece, as it reflects the pain and fragility carried by the beech tree. I wanted to create a parallel between human injury and Beech Bark Disease to encourage viewers to confront the reality of environmental change. Nature can shift in violent and sudden ways, and unfortunately, this is the reality facing the beech tree today. 

By Arezou Ahmad 

My piece is titled “The Giver.” This title reflects the voice of my chosen plant, the American sycamore tree, and the way it continues to give to the world even when it’s being harmed in return. Through this piece, I wanted to showcase how this tree feels in our current industrialized society. To create my drawing, I used a mix of mediums, including watercolour and pencil crayons. My artwork depicts a wounded sycamore tree placed in a heavily polluted environment. Around the tree, I used a dark border to make the colours feel trapped inside. The foreground is painted with dark, ashy tones, while factories in the distance release smoke that loops around and circles in on the tree. I wanted the smoke and cool colours to make the tree feel trapped, showing how pollution drowns out life in nature, making the plant feel helpless. The tree has abstract colours streaming from its core and extending down toward the soil, representing the life and potential that exist beneath the surface. To further this point, I added yellow strings to represent energy sprouting outward, almost as if the tree is reaching for help or trying to keep giving despite its pain. The line, “I gave you all that I could, in vain, and all you gave me back was pain” emphasizes the ecological imbalance between humans and the tree. Overall, I hope my artwork allows people to understand that trees are not just a resource but a living presence with their own feelings that require our empathy and support. 

By Daniella Haroon 

My zine, The Forest Speaks, explores ecological empathy through the lens of Spring. Ephemeral Wildflowers which can be found in Hamilton’s forests. Spring ephemerals are a delicate plant family that bloom at the beginning of spring before the forest canopy is covered with leaves and sunlight is blocked. Ephemerals are delicate and often overlooked, these flowers play a huge role in the health of the ecosystems they are a part of. They are vulnerable to habitat destruction which is often linked to urban expansion and environmental changes. My hand created zine was first drawn on paper with pencil, then transferred digitally and coloured. The cover page is stamped, made by block printing on linoleum. Each page is connected through a continuous pathway that guides the viewer into different landscapes with different flowers along the trails—Trout Lilies, Bloodroots, Sharp- Lobed Hepatica, Virginia Spring Beauties, White Trillium, and Jack in the Pulpit. Focusing on emotion, atmosphere and reflection, the piece communicates the hardships and importance of resilience and care surrounded by environmental loss but also trying our best to co-exist.  

By Dariya Kulinich

This piece is based on the waterfalls and trails near me in Hamilton, especially the Bruce Trail where I’ve spent time walking and observing. Water stood out to me as something I keep returning to without really thinking about it. It is always there, moving through the same spaces but never in exactly the same way. When I was painting, I kept thinking about how these places feel when I’m actually there. It is quiet, but not empty. There is always movement in the water, in the trees, in the air. I tried to capture that feeling by letting the watercolor flow on its own rather than controlling every detail. If this waterfall could speak, I don’t think it would say anything dramatic. It would carry everything quietly. It would hold what passes through it without stopping, whether that is clean water, pollution, or change over time. That idea stayed with me while I was working. The piece reflects that quiet weight, along with a sense of resilience. The water keeps moving regardless.
 

By Darya Sehed Zabihi

The artwork is made of raku clay, a specialized clay designed to withstand thermal shock without breaking. Raku is a traditional pit fired on a hot fire or buried underground with coals, which allows the user to integrate interesting patterns and textures through the options of reduction, quenching, and burning organic matter on surfaces. These various techniques and clay composition all affect the outcome of the pottery’s colour and patterns. This clay medium was chosen for its ability to represent the Beech tree’s texture leaves and crimped leaves. I found it stuck out to me on our nature walk due to the adaptations the beech tree expresses as a result of fungal infection. I think it’s a small example of the effects of globalization and climate change on our planet. I think the planet would feel that she is running a fever and the symptoms of her illness are shown through weather pattern changes, increase in pollution, and increased sea levels. Additionally, raku clay is one of the strongest and most unique clay structures and is symbolic of the resilience and versatility of earth. I think as tired and sick as the planet may feel, she is incredibly strong to be able to adapt and withstand our impacts and actions and she has vast capabilities to heal and regrow. 

By Devyn Walsh, and the students of a local education program 

The piece is an acrylic on wood painting of a maple tree on a sunny day, inspired by a real-life tree that I discovered on my walk home. The painting is also filled with various pastel drawings that were completed by students of mine. This was done as a way to elevate the painting and to portray a childlike sense of imagination that no adult would truly be able to accomplish. Overall, there was a lot of care and love put into this painting, almost in a way that is trying to prompt a response back from its subject. We are saying “I love you” and hoping the tree is saying it back. If the tree really could talk, here is what I would think it would say: I am still here, and there is still joy. 

By Emily Aziz

The element I chose to focus on for my art piece was bees. I divided my art into two halves to represent two realities that emphasize how essential these quiet pollinators are to our ecosystems. On one side, the drawing depicts pollutants that affect bees such as pesticides, air pollutants, and habitat destruction. The other side represents a healthier ecosystem filled with a healthy and thriving ecosystem, filled with healthy flowers, produce, and showcases an environment in which bees are flourishing. I feel that bees are deeply misunderstood, and that people don’t realize is how vital bees are to the environment. Sadly, the bee population is declining due to chemicals in pesticides, their habitats destroyed by human intervention and natural disasters, climate change, and pollution. Without bees, we would face threats to our ecosystems, wildlife, food sources, and biodiversity. My hope for the future is that more people talk about this issue, and more people understand their importance, so that more efforts can be made towards their conservation. 

By Emmy Beebe-Viger

I ultimately decided to do a watercolour painting of one of my favourite spots, Guelph Lake, specifically the small opening off Wellington RD 29. There is a little trail that brings you to a hidden opening right at the lake. However, this spot, as few people know of it, there is a lot of plastic that is collected in this area, as negligent people litter and think no one will notice. This painting represents the beauty that this secluded spot has to offer, with the bright colours, and the interesting textures of logs, and cat tails but also the negligence of the area; the plastic attached in the water as well as the landing. I believe that the planet would ask people to continue to make memories and take comfort in all it has to offer, and continue to provide what people need, tranquility and connection with nature, but would ask that its needs are met with the same courtesy.  

By Gia Chahal 

Watch the video here!

My piece is inspired by my experience canoeing in Cootes Paradise on a sunny Tuesday morning. I have chosen to represent the voice of the water in Cootes Paradise, and its relationship to the flowers that surround it. As we paddled deeper into the heart of Cootes Paradise, I heard insects, herons, and fish swimming by, along with the sounds of my peers laughing, talking, and paddling in their canoes. Together, these sounds created a constant, gentle, and seemingly musical hum – a harmony of life in Cootes Paradise. I wanted my poem and its musical accompaniment to embody this feeling. When composing my acoustic guitar piece, I wanted the melody to represent the free and spontaneous flow of the water, as our canoes sent it rippling in all different directions as we paddled along. I wanted to contrast the movement of the water with the mechanical and repetitive movements that we used to paddle in our canoes. I composed a strumming pattern that mirrors the motion of paddling. To achieve a contrast between the movement of water and the canoe paddles, I decided to play this strumming pattern throughout the piece while sporadically changing the chords that I was playing to represent the free and flexible movement of the water. Through my artistic piece, I hope to highlight the interconnectedness of life in Cootes Paradise, how opportunities for ecological connection can foster community, and the musical nature of our backyard. 

By Hams Al Afif

I was inspired by being in Cootes Paradise and thinking about how it used to look so different. Trying to imagine how it looked years ago was so moving. I decided to follow this story of a tree as its brothers fall around it. I coupled a poem with a set of drawings that get progressively darker. The handprint symbolizes human impact on nature, first on the tree, last on the axe. Overall, I wanted to express this loneliness and despair. The trees around this tree progressively decrease until it’s alone and the focus is on the axe. 

By Julia Tarasiuk 

This poem is about the point of view of the Sun looking down on Earth. Using its five senses, it describes the various ways it sees Earth from a distant point of view. In a way, it is giving the Sun personification, so it senses that Earth is in trouble due to the drastic changes the Sun witnesses daily. I hope that through the work, people gain that throughout a 24-hour period, so many things can happen, both good and bad. But learning to feel gratitude for the little things that help keep this Earth going and us alive is so important to respect.  

By Marla Gervais

My painting shows Monarch butterflies on a clear day resting and drinking from lilacs and dog-strangling vines. I roughly sketched on a 9×12 canvas and used acrylic paint. During one class, I saw a Monarch butterfly and remembered it was an endangered native species. I looked up online later on in the day if there was any invasive species that targeted these butterflies and learned about this plant called the dog-strangling vine (Vincetoxicum rossicum). This plant is part of the milkweed family of plants, and since it’s similar to native milkweed, Monarch butterflies are easily lured to them and lay their eggs on these plants instead. However, Monarch caterpillars can only eat native milkweed leaves. Dog-strangling vines are toxic to them, and newly hatched caterpillars starve and die. I thought this was the perfect topic to create artwork for, due to it being a common issue in southern Ontario and how our native Monarch butterflies are already an endangered species. With dog strangling vines, these animals are harmed even more. I hope to enlighten others about how some damaging flowers are disguised as pretty and innocent, and that invasive species are not only made up of animals, but plants also. 

By Nayeli Redican

In this class, I saw my first cormorant. I was in awe. I’d been spiraling about how much waste my student house makes, putting off homework while I figured out what to do with it all. I started making an eco brick, and then decided to make that my homework. I built upon this brick as I asked myself, “What would the planet feel right now?” My best guess was “powerful.” There are ways Mother Nature is respected and disrespected by all life. She’d feel a range of emotions at any given time but at the end of the day, Mother Nature has an equilibrium beyond our imagination. We’ve disrespected and harmed Her through pollution, including that which has compromised the double-crested cormorant. Cormorants are symbolic of resourcefulness and courage. It’s fitting, then, that the courageous actions of love and hope, taken by Hamiltonians like ourselves, have helped cormorants to thrive once again. I was lucky enough to learn about them as they flew over our heads, in a guided tour with this class. 

By Noah Schifman

Spencer Creek has been a vital waterway connecting the Grand River to Lake Ontario for thousands of years, while also feeding into the diverse wetlands that are now Coote’s Paradise. When McMaster acquired the grounds, they eventually diverted waterways and paved over land to build what is now West Campus. I decided to write a poem from the perspective of West Campus and Spencer Creek, as development shifted and destroyed its natural waterways and habitats. I wanted the reader to feel a profound sense of despair, mirroring the emotional impact the land itself may have had if it were able to feel. I also hoped to convey the constraint and reshaping of the environment. To do this I formatted the poem so that each descending line was shorter than the last, showing how the original lands were rerouted and reigned in for the convenience of development.  It is so easy to forget that where we park our cars everyday was once its own ecosystem with its own delicate balance and it’s important for people to both acknowledge the damage that has been done and help restore and prevent further impacts to the local environment. 

By Vanessa Sharma

This piece portrays the perspective of water. The central image is a hand-drawn raindrop that resembles a tear, evoking the heaviness of human emotion. The raindrop falls from polluted clouds, which symbolizes a broken water cycle. What comes down is not clean rain, but rather a continuation of what we have released into the air. To the left, a drain pulls dark toxins into the Earth, feeding back into the contamination cycle. The raindrop figure is caught between both, falling from a poisoned sky towards a poisoned body of water below. The art is surrounded by physical waste such as plastic bags, bottle caps, and other debris, which highlights human impact on the environment. The local water body this piece references is Cootes Paradise, a wetland beside McMaster’s campus that has a long history of pollution and ongoing restoration efforts. The overall feeling I wanted to capture was mourning with a plea underneath it. I hope people who see this piece feel some of that weight and think about their own relationship to water and waste.