A seven-year-old Chilliwack girl was recognized for her "powerful" artwork featuring the impact of wildfires on salmon, after winning a B.C.-Yukon art contest.
Jane Sache of Rosedale won first place in the under-eight age category of the Pacific Salmon Foundation’s third annual Kids Salmon Art Contest.
Her piece shows salmon and eggs in a river with a forest fire in the background above the water. Burnt trees and branches can be seen falling into the river.
“The fish are resilient. Even when forests burn, and flood waters wash away the bare hillsides, the fish find ways to survive. With our help they can keep going for more generations,” Jane said.
Her grandmother, who's an artist, has been teaching Jane since she could sit up, said mom Kate.
When Oma told Jane and her five-year-old sister Edith about the contest, Jane wondered what she was going to draw.
Then suddenly, the idea just popped into her head.
"In the summertime, there's a lot of forest fires and it's almost summertime so maybe I should draw salmon and forest fires," she recalled thinking to herself.
She used pastels, watercolours and construction paper, and said her favourite part of her piece is the colours she used in the river.
Krysten Maier, development officer at the Pacific Salmon Foundation, helped organize and judge the contest which helps raise awareness about the challenges salmon face amid climate change and habitat loss.
"I want to congratulate you on your excellent piece of art on the forest fire and salmon," Maier wrote in a note to Jane. "It is a very powerful image showing issues affecting salmon, and our whole team was very impressed by your message in this art."
The hand-written letter was tucked into Jane's prize package which included an Indigo gift card, books, hat, pin, sticker, and more.
The foundation received more than 300 submissions from students aged four to 17 from across B.C. and the Yukon. There were four age categories: under eight, eight to 10, 11 to 12, and 13-plus. Submissions ranged from digital art, pen and ink, paintings, drawings, Lego sculptures, plasticine, mixed-media, and clay creations.
When asked what she likes about drawing, Jane said: "It's our creations, it's what we make up. And that's what I like about drawing."
“This year’s submissions from kids of all ages depicted the vitality of the salmon life cycle and migration journey, and the profound challenges to salmon survival," said Michael Meneer, foundation CEO and president. "Salmon needs all of us – from every generation – and this contest has shown that the future of salmon stewardship is strong,”
In addition to the individual winners in each age group, three classrooms won $1,000 towards salmon education and/or resources after being selected by random draw from dozens of entries.
For more information on the contest and to see other submissions, go to psf.ca/blog/psfs-third-kids-art-contest-celebrates-pacific-salmon.
