By Margaret Badore, Source: Treehugger

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Last month, a group of street artists converged on Mexico’s Isla Mujeres for a festival of art and awareness. Sea Walls: Murals for Oceans is a public art project created by Pangea Seed, an organization dedicated to protecting sharks, sea life and our oceans.

One of Pangea Seed’s primary means of sending their messages is through “ARTivism”—a strategy of combining art and activism. Sea walls is a beautiful example of this, bringing together artists from all over the world to make art with a message about ocean conservation.

At Isla Mujeres, 15 artists from around the world created 14 large murals that explore the beauty of the sea, the creatures that inhabit it, and our complicated relationship with them.

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Artist: Celeste Byers

In Celeste Byers’ mural, colorful mermaids with shark tails happily co-exist with humans and rays. These creatures are common to the waters around Isla Mujeres, but sadly many are considered threatened species, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List.

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Artist: Curiot

Participating in Sea Walls gave the artists the opportunity to dive around Isla Mujeres, and to see the creatures for themselves before they went to work. It’s clear that the experience informed and inspired their art.

In this mural by Mexican street artist Curiot, we see small human forms floating along the spine of a giant creature. It’s a somewhat ominous image, but it conveys how the fate of humans and animals are linked. The images wrap around several sides of the building, all with a message of interdependence.

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Artist: Hannah Stouffer

Hannah Stouffer is an American artist who lives in L.A. Her work often features images of nature, like her Magic of the Woods series. Here, we see ghostly manta rays juxtaposed with geometric shapes that suggest the phases of the moon—perhaps also a reference to the tides.
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Artist: Meggs

Meggs, from Australia, also choose to paint a gorgeous manta ray.

Pangea Seed hopes that Sea Walls will help promote the value of ecotourism. The festival happened over the course of a week, and also included educational workshops to help share how the local community can save sea.

See more at: Treehugger