February 26, 2020 3 min read

Artists Join Forces to Plant 1,568 trees for Our Planet Week

Art has a way of inspiring us, and it's a very interesting way to spread a message or create awareness about the issues we care about most - such as the environment. That's why One Tree Planted was thrilled to collaborate with Our Planet Week!

Our Planet Week is a movement started by a group of artists (@asiaorlando ,@belliesartboutique, @corahlouiseillustration, @dancelstudio, @elenig, @hollymaguireuk, @julika.illustration, @lizarusalskaya, and @rachel_winkle) to create environmental awareness through art! As an added real-world impact we decided to plant a tree for each piece of art that was posted on Instagram throughout the week in early February.

This community of artists really joined forces, and 1,568 mangrove trees will be planted in India on their behalf! 

Artists: @irenemucedola, @art.kve ,@_nanamira 

Each day of Our Planet Week highlighted a different theme. The artists were provided with different prompts to base their art on and the results were remarkable. You could certainly see some unifying themes, and it was interesting to see how individual artists perceived the prompts differently, particularly about what the future looked like. 

The themes throughout the week were:

Image of trees and bees

Flora & Fauna 

Image of indigenous women

Unite

Rainbow image of woman doing yoga

Harmony 

Image of mother earth

Mother Earth

House growing trees out of it

Future 

Artists: @artbykhuggs, @studioromiche, @marleneboke, @olga.s_art, @savannah.storm

So why plant trees for all of this art? First, it helped make a greater impact to an already powerful social media campaign. Second, we couldn't help but see how the themes are so closely related to trees and reforestation. Some themes may be more obvious than others but let's dive into that. 

Artists: @alioliart,@olari_sketchy_stories, @mcmeillustration

Flora & Fauna

This is probably the clearest of themes in terms of its relationship to trees. And given the fact that over 80% of Earth's terrestrial biodiversity exists IN forests, this was a great fit. In much of the art, you could see the symbiotic relationships that trees have with all aspects of nature from animals, flowers, humans, even fungi!

Artists: @i.b.illustration, @corahlouiseillustration, @olari_sketchy_stories 

Unite 

The year 2019 going into 2020 has by far been one of the greatest years for activism when it comes to the environment. We see the climate strike in the news every week now and more people are getting on board with living sustainably every day. And while it may be true that a single person is not going to fix the planet, we have no doubt that we can unite to make a difference. 

Artists: @clarisse_illustrations, @bertand_aznar, @yu.niq

Harmony

Living in harmony is something most of us dream of. Though it looks different to all of us, most of if not all of the artists envisioned living in harmony with a clean healthy planet. After all, a clean planet provides us with good health and without that none of us will be happy. Trees also help keep our planet's atmosphere in harmony by sequestering carbon, creating oxygen, and providing habitats for biodiversity. Trees can definitely help create a more harmonious world.

Artists: @rama.samkari.art, @djibarty, @callmejulesdesign

Mother Earth 

We know her, we love her, we want to be her. Mother Earth! The keeper of all living things and trees! All of these efforts are for the well being of her. Take care of Mother Earth, plant her trees and she will take care of us in return. 

Artists: @corahlouiseillustration, @emmamartschnike, @freubelding

Future

This was by far the most diverse of the bunch. There was a large mixture of hope and fear for what the future holds. Some seemed almost as a warning saying that if we don't get our act together, this is what the future could look like. Others communicated a message that said IF we get our act together this is what the future could look like. 

The future can be bright if we incorporate all of these themes into our lives. All it takes is a little bit of unity and good decisions to pave the way towards harmony! Feeling inspired? Make Mother Earth a little greener and plant a tree, we have reforestation projects all over the world to chose from. Thank you to Our Planet Week for allowing us to join the initiative and to all of the incredible artists that contributed! 

Follow #ourplanetweek for more beautiful environmental art.



by Kaylee Brzezinski

Sustainability Maven