Using Art to Quickly Get an Idea Across
At the student walk-out march at the September United Nations Climate Action Summit, three of us Sustaining All Life artists went into the crowd and using street chalk drew a forty-foot-long stream pouring out of the words “Water Is Life.”
People stopped and used the chalk to draw fish. One woman drew a dolphin leaping out of the water. An Indigenous music group stood by the stream as if it were a real stream and began playing their folk music. We spontaneously drew the stream around their feet to make the music part of the art. It was like a street performance.
I loved how quickly we figured out what to do. We stood in the crowd holding the chalk and envisioned the entire event in less than three minutes.
Art can so quickly get an important idea across.
Brooklyn, New York, USA
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion list for leaders of artists
(Present Time 198, January 2020)