Lily Chen's "Hope for a Green Tree under a Deep Blue Sky"

“My artwork “Hope for a Green Tree under a Deep Blue Sky” aims to represent hope in a world ridden by a never-ending cycle of pollution. Factories, no matter how large or little, are without a doubt essential and necessary. Without them, we wouldn’t have any of the manufactured goods that we rely on so heavily in almost every part of our daily lives. However, the fumes that are released during the manufacturing processes are also the driving force of our planet’s destruction. In “Hope for a Green Tree under a Deep Blue Sky”, a girl is depicted picking up various plastics and trash on a dry, cracked beach. Looking up, she gazes at a withering tree on a distant, isolated island. She gazes beyond it too, at the destruction, chaos, and most importantly, the hypocrisy of the factories' existence. Such complexes and machinery were created to benefit us, but their noxious smoke contaminates the atmosphere and is slowly but surely decimating life on Earth. But, despite bearing witness to this horrid scenery, the girl continues to reach down onto the dry, cracked earth. She continues filling her bags with plastic and trash, all the while gazing onward at the tree on the island that doesn’t seem all too distant anymore. Maybe someday, she will be able to see that tree thrive and flourish under a deep blue sky once again.”