Artworks by Apple Resonance show the interactions between albatrosses and plastic pollution in eye-catching ways

“If Your Human Ways Remain Unchanged”, Laysan Albatross, after a screenshot from the film ALBATROSS by Chris Jordan

ACAP’s fourth collaboration (Project #43) with Artists and Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) for World Albatross Day on 19 June and its 2023 theme of ‘Plastic Pollution’, set to last for three months from the beginning of the year, is now well over halfway through, so a progress report is due  The response to this year's theme has been excellent to date, with 22 artists contributing a total of 55 artworks (view them all in an ACAP Facebook album).  Several have produced more than one, with honours currently going to Snah Kritzler, who has submitted no less than 16 evocative ballpoint pen drawings, several of which have been featured by ACAP Latest News (click here).

Apple Resonance

One ABUN artist, Apple (Chan) Resonance, has also been active, creating six artworks for the project, five of which are illustrated here, of albatrosses interacting with plastic pollution in different ways.  Originally from Manila, Philippines, she moved to Los Angeles in 2005 to practice interior design.  She now lives in Big Bear City in California, where she practices her art and writes and publishes nature-inspired books for children from her cabin home (click here).  ACAP Latest News reached out to Apple to learn more about her and her art.  Her edited reply follows.

“Illuminate Our Destiny”, Black-footed Albatross and chick, after a photograph by Eric VanderWerf

“See My Voice”, Laysan Albatross, after a photograph by Hob Osterlund

“I have always been a hesitant artist.  Originally, I only painted interiors and furniture as a professional  interior designer.  But I became passionate about watercolour painting after acquiring my first professional grade watercolour set in 2015.  Back then, I had been an edible organic gardener and only wanted to paint my vegetable harvests from the garden to illustrate and publish books, so children can get attuned to growing food from seeds.  I have become even more passionate about watercolour painting using water gathered from the rain, snow, lakes, rivers and waterfalls every place I go”.

“In Your Kind Hands’ (Flight back to the Source)”, after a scene in the film ALBATROSS by Chris Jordan

“I guess growing and painting vegetables was just a creative gateway.  I then started seeking a higher purpose and happily began painting wildlife, including birds for ABUN projects from 2019.  In 2022, I had COVID, which I found a scary experience.  Yet, this became my breakthrough not to be hesitant anymore in my creative expressions.  The real awareness that we are all going to die made me choose to become even more straightforward and direct in my life purpose to make a change through painting and book publishing until my final day comes”.

“The Shadows of Human Consumption”, after a photograph by Stefan Schoombie

You can follow Apple Resonance and her art on Facebook.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels, 21 February 2023