Large scale art mural to raise awareness about wildlife conservation
My name is Ekaterina Sky and I am a wildlife conservation artist. My story is about how I was able to find my true purpose through the challenges. Art was always present in my life.
As a child, my family and I moved from country to country in search of a better life. In every country, I would have to learn a new language. It would always take me at least a year to be able to start communicating to others.
The only thing that would stay consistent is art, drawing and painting would always be my way to express myself and to communicate without any need for words.
Not being able to connect to the other kids left me alone and separated from them – but it’s sitting somewhere in a corner with my sketchbook creating my own world made me feel unique instead of alone.
With every country, there would be a new school, where I would be the new kid. The girl who did not speak the language. Because of being very different from others, being an immigrant I was bullied a lot. When I would share with my parents what was happening, they could not even go to school and talk to teachers as they did not speak the language either. So not to upset them, I stopped sharing with them what was happening.
All of this to say is that I know what it feels like not to be able to speak up. I can deeply feel the suffering of our planet and the pain that is being caused to animals. I have deep compassion towards other species as they suffer, but yet cannot communicate it for us to see and help.
My mission is to speak for those who can’t. I paint to raise awareness about wildlife conservation, and to inspire people to be kinder towards animals. It is inspiring for me to use my best language which is art to help others in need.
In my recent world mural tour, I traveled to different countries around the world and painted murals of endangered species. Each mural was of an animal gazing the viewer directly into the eyes. Each one of the paintings is colorful to highlight the uniqueness and individuality of each animal.
The goal was to bring animals back into people’s lives, as the urban lifestyle disconnects us from nature. We forget that there are other species. And that not only we lose sight of animals, we lose the ability to connect with them.
So through my art, I want to create a moment of connection between a human and an animal.
As I believe we connect through our eyes, which are windows into our soul and when we get to meet someone’s soul we don’t have a heart to hurt them.
Even though my life was filled with threats, uncertainty and challenges I do not wish it to be different as it shaped me to be who I am today, created my purpose in life: to speak for the voiceless. ~ Ekaterina Sky
