No Smoke….

Description

This painting is about global heating, with my modern sonnet ‘Leadership’ transcribed over the top as fire sticks. The title invites the viewer to complete the saying ‘…without fire’. It depicts a simple house with a fence, engulfed in a smoky fire, asking the viewer to vote for political change. We are all culpable in developed countries by virtue of our lifestyle, consuming multiple planets yearly while those suffering most are contributing least to the crisis. It urges us to put out the fire by demanding our MPs and representatives immediately end fossil fuel extraction and implement restorative, regenerative, equitable ecological solutions for everyone’s wellbeing. This won’t be easy, but living with unseasonal weather events, wildfire, flooding and rising sea levels will not be any easier, and the clean-up and defensive costs are exorbitant.

LEADERSHIP
The United Nations, European
Union and UK members, the Vatican
and Democracy Now- the Great and the Good-
assembled, then listened, chastened, as their
guest, teenaged and pigtailed, proclaimed on School
Strikes, and a rocketing fossil fuelled
emissions curve stealing her future, sold,
while she waits to grow up and change the world.
Elsewhere, presidents deny, flout and Tweet,
strut, obfuscate and accuse ‘rogue states’ to
deflect attention from their own back yard,
or spy on a dark web to change results.
Some people think it’s still a matter of faith,
but our house is on fire – change trumps delay.