When Trevor from Crumlin Community Clean Up suggested I apply to Crumlin Creative Climate Action with an art project I was reluctant at first for two reasons. The climate crisis in general really causes me a lot of stress and anxiety, I try to do the little things I can, I moved to a plant based diet, reduced my use of disposable items etc, but it does feel so huge and important that it can be overwhelming, I wasn't sure I could face it or do it justice. The second reason was that I was suffering extreme nausea from early pregnancy and wasn't sure it was the right time for me to take on a big project alongside my day job and numerous other projects. But I thought what the hell, I'll apply and was delighted when my project was selected. The project has been a huge learning curve for me in terms of project management and I really feel I have grown as an artist and person because of it.

The mural itself focuses on the burden we are putting on future generations by not tackling the climate crisis now. We are literally putting the weight of the world on their shoulders. I wanted it to be obvious that the mural was about the climate crisis just from the visuals. The classic pose of Atlas carrying the world on his back came to mind, so I brought a giant birthing ball with me to the climate workshop I held with the kids. Conan and Lucy were fantastic models and I took lots of reference photos to work from. I drew the kids in three tones on my digital tablet and then sent them to Holly to add the earth. My brief to Holly was to add the earth showing clear impacts of the climate crisis. I was thinking fires, floods, draughts, Holly knew better and simplified all of that into the melting earth you see in the finished piece, it summed everything up in a simple clear and concise way. The puddle the kids stand on representing our waste of resources and resembling a pool of oil. The clothes the kids are wearing is actually just what they happened to wear that day, but I loved how Conan's army print could represent the future conflicts and wars fought over resources because of the climate crisis. Conan's expression is confronting, it looks defiantly at you, almost accusing you for not doing something to make the planet a better place for him & future generations. Lucy's leggings covered in leaves and plant patterns, represent the impact that the crisis will have on the natural world, Lucy talked about animals and nature in the workshop and how to was important for us to save them, Lucy's expression now more hopeful and represents a possible alternative future if we make big changes now.

The words in the mural are an abbreviation of something Conan said during the workshop "we only have one planet and we only have one life". The style of the mural is reminiscent of comic books, with bold colours and smoke clouds, presenting the children as heroes of a future world where they take on the consequences of lives lived by previous generations. The colours used are green/blue teals and reds and oranges, representing the battle between nature and fire and destruction.

I hope that when people see the mural they will not just make small changes in their own lives but be provoked to demand change from our government and our industries. Protest is powerful and it works, that has been proven with many recent campaigns in Ireland.

It is also important to note that the fight for climate action starts locally, you can't expect someone to care about global issues if they have problems on their own door step. The housing and energy crisis that we are suffering at the moment is too, impacting our climate negatively. Without energy efficient, warm and safe homes, the energy we are overpaying for literally flies out the window and we fire threw more fossil fuels to replace it. A problem that many Crumlin families can not afford.

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