5th Annual – Artwork & Poetry Contest – 2023
Harmony in Peril:
Exploring Climate Change, the Biodiversity Crisis, and the Fate of the Snow Leopard
WINNERS
Grand Prize Artwork
Chasing Snow
Artist – Jaqui-Lynne Walsh
Medium: Oils
As the Snow Leopard’s traditional habitats are impacted by climate change, they have to move ever higher and further to recapture the traditional lands.
In this oil painting, I wanted to put the focus on the following elements: the precious snow (home to sources of sustenance), movement (symbolizing the search for snow), the mountain peaks in the background showing no snow (climate change). The background on the left shows the sky is overcast with the promise of snow but on the right the clouds have dissipated showing a clear sky, the sun creating shadows shown with the sticks in the foreground indicating that this newly found snow which will also soon melt – also showing the effects of climate change.
Reference Photo: Emmanuel Keller
First Place – Traditional Artwork
Adult – 18 & Over
CEO
Artist – Gabriele Buratti-Buga
Medium: Oils
Wild animals adapt to the new climatic conditions and move in the spaces that centuries before belonged to them, here we see a city where the leopard moves as if on the mountains. Where are the humans?
Explanation of the numbers: Numbers are codes, they are the symbol of man’s estrangement from mother nature. But Nature wins and the leopard inhabits new spaces where the artificial world created by Homo sapiens has lost itself in the logic of consumerism guided by Power which acts through the codification of Nature.
Second Place – Traditional Artwork
Adult – 18 & Over
Save Earth To Save Our Lives
Artist – Ekaterina Drozhdina
Medium: Pastels
The mother cat looks up at the clouds of smoke beginning to cloud the sky. Her eyes are full of anxiety. And the carefree cub trustingly looks at his mother, unaware of the threat. The mountains near the clouds “light up” brighter with snowy peaks, as if resisting an impending disaster and protecting the fragile living world. It’s a threat and a hope.
Third Place – Traditional Artwork
Adult – 18 & Over
Beauty in Peril
Artist – Justine Woosnam
Medium: Colored Pencils
Fourth Place – Traditional Artwork
Adult – 18 & Over
The Himalayas, My Home
Artist – Anju Panwar Rajesh
Media: Watercolors and Gouache with Texture
Reference Photo: Santos Kumar
Kibber Wildlife Sanctuary, Himachal Pradesh, India
Fifth Place – Traditional Artwork
Adult – 18 & Over
Love
Artist – Maryse Louis
Medium: Watercolors on Watercolor Paper
Sixth Place – Traditional Artwork
Adult – 18 & Over
Future
Artist – Maryse Louis
Medium: Watercolors
Seventh Place – Traditional Artwork
Adult – 18 & Over
Snow Melts For An Early Spring
Artist – Susi Gardner
Medium: Oils
Snow leopard cub resting against the newly growing grass watching the snow melt early providing more scope for the expanding grasslands below. The sorrow showing on his face of his losing habitat and questionable future.
Eighth Place – Traditional Artwork
Adult – 18 & Over
Pleading Eyes
Artist – Catherine Williams-Mourounas
Media: Pastels with Colored Pencils on Dark Grey-Toned Pastel Mat
Ninth Place – Traditional Artwork
Adult – 18 & Over
Mischief, With Whiskers
Artist – Fiona Anderson
Medium: Scratchboard
Reference photo: Fiona Anderson taken at the Melbourne Zoo, Victoria, Australia
Tenth Place – Traditional Artwork
Adult – 18 & Over
Please Stand Up For Our Realm
Artist – Ekaterina Drozhdina
Medium: Pastels
These are views that look straight into the soul. This is the ghost of the mountains, the snow leopard… Not some individual animal, but a collective image, idea, soul of the mountains. This is an image of the most wonderful, mystical, beautiful thing in the world. And this is a request addressed to the people: “Protect this world! Protect these mountains! Protect us!”
First Place – Poetry
Adult – 18 & Over
The Snow Leopard’s Paradise
by Anne Curtis
Long tail switching lazily
the snow leopard looks down from the cliff top
Snowflakes drift down even in summer
sprinkling her dense fur with white
adding another dimension to the smoke rings on her coat.
The storm cloud passes
and in the distance are mountain peaks
which shimmer in the sun
A lake glitters at the foot of a talus slope
And jewel-like flowers punctuate the meadow grass.
This beauty is irrelevant to the snow leopard
focused on a flock of bharal grazing the meadow grass below
Soon she will make a move toward them
She lives a tough, though picturesque existence
and has lived this way seemingly forever.
Her beautiful world has borders
The mountains and the cliffs and the canyons
the bharal and the sweet meadow grass
Well adapted to life in the high mountains
the snow leopard does not venture beyond these boundaries.
Outside these bounds is another world
A world where the air is hazy with smoke and dust
Where human activity has caused warming temperatures
Future changes are difficult to fathom
and time is running out.
Glaciers melt, permafrost thaws, and the ground dries
Now the bharal’s favorite meadow grass forms tough clumps
If the bharal and the goats and the marmots grow scarce
the snow leopard’s numbers may dwindle
or she may migrate in search of another paradise.
For the outside world impacts the realm of the snow leopard
Change is happening incrementally, but ever faster and faster
as if the four grounding corners of a mandala have begun rotating
and are now spinning wildly out-of-control
Only humans can save the snow leopard’s paradise now.
First Place – Traditional Artwork
Youth – Ages 12-17
Snow Leopard Cub
Artist – Devlini Denethmie Kudathanthirige
Medium: Watercolors
Second Place – Traditional Artwork
Youth – Ages 12-17
Snowmelt
Artist – Marina Chen
Medium: Pastels
Second Place – Poetry
Adult – 18 & Over
The Orison of the Ounce
by Sara Mills
Spotted cat of mystery who by chance
Was exiled to the farthest reaches,
What can you teach us
Of beauty and balance?
You who have concord with bharal and boar
And the goat-like creatures of tahr and markhor,
How will your kingdom fare before
Your very existence disappears like the mists?
It seems every time I look into those eyes
They pounce upon my conscience whole,
Leaving these endangered paw prints
Etched deep into my alpine soul.
They seem omniscient as though they know
That I can halt the melting snow,
The rising tree line, the dwindling range,
The predator known as climate change.
And yet for all the guilt I feel
They do not judge me, only appeal:
“Where are the ibex and argali?
The rivers that once ran in harmony?
Why are my friends the fragmented foe?
Why is danger on high not seen from below?
For you and I are imperiled the same,
My world is also your world to reclaim.”
Then he turns away from our locked gaze
But there is no home where the livestock graze
And so his rosettes blend into night,
His fur feeding into white starlight,
Our planet never again to see those eyes
Arrest even the rays of a Himalayan sunrise.
First Place – Traditional Artwork
Youth – Ages 11 & Under
Akira
Artist – Myroslava Berest (Mira)
Media: Watercolors and Acrylics on Paper
Second Place – Traditional Artwork
Youth – Ages 11 & Under
Carroll Symmetry
Artist – Kuhu Kacher
Media: Acrylics and Markers on Canvas
Third Place – Traditional Artwork
Youth – Ages 11 & Under
Leopards of Light
Artist – Hanna Amelie Rae Dribinski
Media: Colored Pencils and Watercolors
Third Place – Poetry
Adult – 18 & Over
A Melting Paradise
by Anne Curtis
I
A paradise it was, the Himalaya
I fell in love a half century ago
with soaring peaks and glittering lakes
and plumes of snow blowing from the summits.
I climbed through deep valleys and gorges etched by rivers
and through pine and rhododendron forests
where strings of ponies sported red plumes and clanging bells
Wild roses and willows grew in dry creek beds.
I saw thorny, blue poppies
on a dry and scrubby hillside
where little puffs of dust rose with every step
and disappeared into the cold wind.
With reverence, I visited gompas perched on cliffs
their shrine rooms opulent and full of history
Curious, shy children laughed with me
while their families tended yaks.
I fell in love with thin air, expansive views and shining peaks
The majestic guardian that is the elusive snow leopard
was often in my thoughts
though never seen.
II
Now the climate shifts
Glaciers melt, permafrost warms
The ground dries
and tender green meadow grass dies.
Blue sheep tear at clumps of tough grass
Their numbers may dwindle
A hungry snow leopard takes a yak
Herder and animal conflicts may rise.
My love is a forlorn love now
yet I do not feel betrayed
for this is not the fault of paradise
nor of the splendid snow leopard that is its guardian.
I am saddened by changes that we seemingly cannot prevent
Species will disappear from the Himalaya
causing disruption in a finely balanced world
What will become of the snow leopards, the flowers, and the children?
Yes, I am saddened and afraid
that paradise may shrivel and die
Unless, like a beautiful snow leopard poised on a rocky cliff
we can balance our needs now with those of a future world.
First Place – Digital Media
Adult – 18 & Over
The Search
Artist – Dolgor Byambadorj
Medium: Digital
Second Place – Digital Media
Adult – 18 & Over
Snow Leopard Jumping
Artist – Katya Vasko
Medium: Digital
Fourth Place – Poetry
Adult – 18 & Over
Steadfast
by Sandra McEwen
Oh wise one of the icy heights,
with frosty forehead and gleaming eyes,
with startling contrast of toughness and magnificence –
what secrets have your ancestors learnt
and passed on to you now?
They’re in your ease of quiet stealth,
in your hurtling effortlessly
down harsh, stony slopes.
And in your remarkable resilience
in the face of earth’s ecologies fraying
and the challenges of changing climate.
Still, you will never be deterred
from your ineffable persistence.
For you are one with your mountains,
as steadfast as the hills.
You have always prevailed,
your guttural growls eternally echoing.
And you will always continue your timeless struggle,
in the toughness and magnificence that is also Life itself.
Grand Prize Youth Artwork
and
First Place – Digital Media
Youth Ages 12-17
Floating Away
Artist – Zaina Alam Piya
Medium: Digital
Fifth Place – Poetry
Adult – 18 & Over
Mountain Majestic
by Julie M. Smith
There is beauty in the mountains,
If you wish to see it
Paw prints line the snowy blanket,
Slowly disappearing into the thicket
Soft fur waiting for a cool breeze,
Quickly warms up due to no freeze
Water flows in abundance at first,
Reduced to a trickle to quench a thirst
Food scampers and hides all around,
Only now nowhere to be found
Little ones will soon be here,
May not live to see next year
There is beauty in the mountains,
Though you may not see it.
First Place – Combination Media
Adult – 18 & Over
Snow Leopard In The Snow
Artist – Natalya Pavlushina
Media: Liners on Paper with Computer Finalization
Sixth Place – Poetry
Adult – 18 & Over
Ghost of the Mountains
by Neil Mukherjee
I live amidst the Mountains of the East
If you are lucky to see me, know that
You may never see me ever again.
I am the Grey Ghost of the Mountains
Protector, Traveler, and Adventurer.
As I set out across the
The mountains, I set myself
The challenge to live or die.
I am a lover, a protector of my family
Yet the world I share with you
Is becoming more of yours and
Less of mine.
As I battle against the elements
Of Wind, Water, Heat, and Earth,
My life is placed on a thin thread,
Living on the edge of existence.
I am the spirit of the mountains,
King of my Domain and I
Witness the changes in my landscape.
Sometimes the Winters are warm;
The winter Ice around me is melting,
The snow is patchy in parts.
And the Summers are dry.
I live and die for the hunt,
But the Goats and Blue Sheep
Come and go or die of starvation.
Sometimes they pause as they
Capture a glimpse of me
Knowing it may be their last
Look before I strike for my
Hunt.
I am at risk when they stop
coming my way or when
I search and I find
Nothing in sight.
Some Humans enjoy the sport of the hunt;
Be warned for what you will do…
For my life is as precious as yours.
Ask yourself, what is it you seek within,
Your beating heart for the Ghost of the
Mountains will reign Over you,
Reminding you with each
Passing day that we are
Equally destined on this planet.
We share the same air and we
We live, love, and die on this
same world.
If you attack me, you shall be haunted
by my spirit that will find you
For every hostile move
you make.
Be warned, I am the Snow Leopard
Of the East; Spirit of the Mountains
Protector, Traveler, Observer
As I witness the fall of our world
In your hands…
First Place – Unique Media
Adult 18 & Over
I See You
Artist – Debi Lockhurst
Medium: Acrylics on Newfoundland Slate
Seventh Place – Poetry
Adult – 18 & Over
Snowy Wonderment
by Julie M. Smith
Their beauty is of admiration,
Hopes in nature is their inspiration
Wonders of snow on the peaks,
Is what they hope to find and seek
Thoughts of days in the cold air,
Now is warmed with despair
Visions of water flow in their minds,
Getting only harder to drink and find
Belief that food will be there,
Not fortunate to be found anywhere
Dreams to watch small ones grow,
Only time will let them know
Their beauty is of admiration,
Hopes in nature now in stagnation.
First Place – Unique Media
Youth – Ages 12-17
Snow Leopard Cub
Artist – Susan
Medium: Flat Clay
Eighth Place – Poetry
Adult – 18 & Over
The Last Supper of the Snow Leopard
by Sarah Mills
There exists a mural on a mountainside,
One depicting the solemnest scene,
A table headed by a holy cat
Where all about him animals convene.
Few of his disciples remain for the meal
Save for the brethren who know him the best
But amongst the marmot, pika and hare
There is one that sits in shadow from the rest.
This figure has locks of treasonous red
Symbolizing the rising heat,
The darkness tells of who’ll betray
With an act of pure deceit.
In the figure’s hand a bag is held
Containing the flakes of silver snows,
The argent springs, streams, and ponds,
The degradation of lush meadows.
His head is bowed as the tree line soars,
As the livestock take over sacred ground,
His elbow lies on the lowered table
Of water sources scarcely found.
At the apex of this somber drama
The ounce announces his fate to be,
All line and life converge with him,
The vanishing point: biodiversity.
First Place – Unique Media
Youth – Ages 11 & Under
