UNIVERSITY OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND
UPEI student creates species-at-risk painting to mark Earth Day

Paige Campbell, a Bachelor of Environmental Studies student at UPEI, is marking Earth Day, April 22, with a painting of species at risk on PEI.

Students in the Environmental Studies 4010 Public Scholars on Environmental Issues capstone course were given the choice to do a semester-long research project with a local community partner or a creative project.

"Paige is the first student to take the creative project option since I started teaching the course in 2017," said Dr. Carolyn Peach Brown, professor and director of the Environmental Studies program at UPEI. "It was great to see a student choose a different way to be a public scholar. She has set a high bar for the next student who decides to do a creative project in the course."

Campbell's painting is a collage of aquatic birds, songbirds, fish, mammals, insects, lichens, and vascular plants on PEI that are either endangered, threatened, or of special concern. The painting is linked to a QR code that takes the viewer to a website with more information about the species depicted.

The endangered category includes such species as the little brown and Northern bats, the piping plover, and the gypsy cuckoo bumble bee. Under threatened, she includes the common nighthawk, American eel, Suckley's cuckoo bumble bee, the Gulf of St. Lawrence aster, and white-rimmed shingle lichen. In the special concern group are the Barrow's goldeneye, the evening grosbeak, Atlantic salmon, monarch butterfly, beach pinweed, and blue felt lichen, among others.

"I wanted the art to draw viewers in and spark curiosity," Campbell said in an artist's statement on the website. "Then, if they wanted to know more, they could visit the website where they could learn about each species, their habitat, what threatens them, and ways we can help.

"Environmental concerns can often feel out of our control. I wanted to focus on small ways we can each help these species rather than on the big changes that need to be made by those in power. If you enjoy hiking, gardening, or going to the beach, there are simple things you can do to support these species at risk."

The painting will hang in the Robertson Library from April 22 to 29 and then will be displayed in the Charlottetown Library Learning Centre in early May.