🏅2026 Finalist – Student Art Exhibition

Greed vs the Game

Esri Tonnesen
Grade 7 — SD School of Creative and Performing Arts

In the Artist’s Words
I chose the topic of global warming and climate change because I’ve always cared about the environment.

I chose the topic of global warming and climate change in my piece because I have always been interested it and the environment. I’ve gone to multiple litter pickups and advertised saving the earth for school projects. I also love admiring nature and global warming is trying to ruin my view.

I used Ibispaint X to create my work as it is simply the easiest for me to create digital drawings in because I have more experience with it than any other tool. I used reference images like art from other artists to create my work to help me get an idea of what to choose. I saw a piece that showed a boiling pot of earth being used to power a hot air balloon for humans, flying above a destroyed world. I used the idea of a burning earth caused by humans and used it to reference witch’s ovens and witches brews.

I told my story by portraying ”big brother”/corporations, a mutated human figure, working with “greed”, a humanoid stack of money, dressed at witches smiling down on the earth cooking in their oven. It shows how humanity when tempted by greed for money causes them to disregard the earth’s health during their escapades for higher wealth.

The message is clear because it shows humanity and greed overlooking what their partnership has brought upon the globe. The smiling figures watching over the burning Earth represent how the pursuit of wealth can contribute to climate change and lead to more harmful emissions.

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🖌 Medium — Digital Illustration
🎨 Theme — Climate Change + Environment