For planet Ocean 2026

Hello everyone!

Like every year and with the help of amazing artists, we host “for planet ocean”, a participative art challenge on instagram to raise awareness for everything ocean related, created by @emmalopesart

This year, we partnered up with Healthy Ocean Coalition for ocean conservation and decided on four prompts:
🐚 Art Prompts:
8th June- Ocean Symbiosis
12th June- Ocean Superheroes
16 June- Ocean Mysteries
20th June- Ocean of the Future

Below the artworks that I created or picked for this year’s art challenge, along a little information on each highlighted species or environment.

OCEAN SYMBIOSIS

Sketchbook spread of the cleaner wrasse (labroides dimidiatus)

For the first prompt, « Ocean Symbiosis », I wanted to highlight the tiny cleaner wrasse, which is one of the smartest fish out there!

He recently passed the mirror test, proving a rapid self-recognition: about 30 minutes after seeing a mirror for the first time! And even went to try out the mirror by letting things fall down and looking at what was happening in the mirror.

The cleaner wrasse is a social fish and cleans the fishes of the reef, he has a reputation to uphold and developed social skills and memory, which explains its intelligence.

They have a crucial role in the skin health of many fishes, living in perfect symbiosis with all of their clients, eating the death skin and parasites of the bigger fishes.

OCEAN SUPERHEROES

Eternal Youngster, 2026 (will be shown and available for my solo show early 2027 at Beinart Gallery)
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For the prompt “Ocean Superheroes”, I wanted to highlight the lobster! I recently read about their peculiar never-aging cells. Theoretically they could live forever, however each time they molt, their new shell gets bigger and thicker and eventually they can’t crack their shell open anymore.
Their life expectancy is about 140 years, so still quite impressive!

For the science aspect, during cell division, DNA gets damaged, to prevent that, DNA has so called telomeres at the end which take the hit. When those telomeres are done, cells stop dividing and we age. But the lobsters have a nifty process called telomerase that heals telomeres during cell division.

I wanted to highlight that in my sculpture as well, that’s why I went with this rainbow dot pattern on the shell, to allude to those never-aging cells.

OCEAN MYSTERIES

Deep Sea Mining, 2023 - in the collection of the Coastal Discovery Museum, Hilton Head Island, USA

For “Ocean Mysteries”, I picked this painting of the deep sea from 2023.

The deep sea is still mostly unknown and misunderstood, but filled with wondrous life that is vastly different from anything we see on earth or in the upper strates of the ocean.

Sadly, we are already mining it for its polymetallic nodules. You might think that « green energy » and technologies are the future and are going to change the game, unfortunately high-end technologies use a lot of rare metals and are the main driver of deep sea mining. They never replaced fossil fuels, we combine more and more energy every passing year and the climate is breaking.
That also includes AI. (though AI seems to be mostly pointless, even though it’s very ressource demanding)

Deep sea mining is brutal, you have those enormous machines who sweep the sea floor, destroying everything in their wake.

Nobody wants to hear it, but the only way we still have is de-growth and to rethink our whole system, that is currently bound to fail.

It’s easy sometimes to get discouraged, trust me, I do! But I think, now more than ever, it is important to discuss and act and imagine another way of living. Not just on a personal scale, but on a larger community, even societal scale. It is never vain to try to better the world, however you can!

OCEAN OF THE FUTURE

Precarious Balance, 2026 (will be shown and available for my solo show early 2027 at Beinart Gallery)
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For the last art prompt of this year’s ocean challenge, “Ocean of the Future”, I decided to create a sculpture
of a tripod fish balancing on trash.

This was posted just before an insane heatwave in France and Europe, and the question of a healthy future is more dire than ever.
Our impact on the environment and climate has been known and documented for over 50 years. One major book that marks the contemporary acknowledgement of this human crisis is the « Limits to Growth », a report by Dennis Meadows, from 1972.
Yet here we are, our governments have ignored scientists for the most part, still thinking economical growth should be privileged over everything else and it’s only getting worse from year to year.
What can I say? Don’t give up! I get it, it’s so difficult not to fall into despair these days, but the world is beautiful and worth fighting for.

I hope you’ve survived the heatwave, I have personally moved my studio in my kitchen, which never got hotter than 32°C, not great, but better than the 42*C than happened outside, our houses here are not made for that kind of heat and my windows are now plastered with survival blankets. I feel very lucky to be able to do that. I am actually writing from my kitchen right now, as the heat hasn’t really subsided. It’s gotten down to 30-31°C, but that’s still a lot warmer than the “normal” temperatures of 24°C.

Thank you so much for reading!
If you love my work and would like to support, consider getting a copy of my book “Utopia”, that spans 10 years of my artworks.