2021 Science Without Borders® Challenge Finalists: 15-19 year old students
The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation is pleased to announce the finalists in our 2021 Science Without Borders® Challenge! This international student art contest engages students in important ocean issues through art. For this year’s competition, students were asked to illustrate one or more of the benefits mangroves provide to people, other organisms, or the environment.
Entries to the Science Without Borders® Challenge are judged in two categories based on age. Here are the finalists selected from the older group of applicants, students 15-19 years old:
"Mother Mangrove" by Gillian Glessman, Age 17, Virginia, United States of America
Artist's Statement: Mangroves are extraordinarily special places of abundance that provide shelter for breeding, nesting, and the early life stages of countless animals. Pictured here are parents and offspring of flora and fauna that might be found in a South African coastline. At the center of both my artwork and this real ecosystem is the Loop-root Mangrove, saturated with color and harboring greatly biodiverse life. Its deep green boughs protect and welcome birds to breed and nest. Its swirling, strong roots shelter juvenile fish, crustaceans, mollusks, and other animals from the harsher open ocean in a loving, circular embrace. The style and colors used in my piece were made to emulate books and artwork I’ve seen in my childhood, connecting the young animals that are nurtured in the mangrove forests to my own younger self. The tender, loving shelter of the mangrove yields a bounty of life in every nook and cranny.
