When Casey Clifford, a graduate student in environmental humanities, moved from the San Francisco Bay area to Salt Lake City, she didn’t expect that air quality would be an issue.
“The mountains are much taller, and it traps all the pollution,” Clifford said.
With the mentorship of Professor Valerie Kim Martinez, Clifford created three original, 3.5-by-4-feet art pieces that communicate the impact that poor air quality has on the human lungs, heart and brain. Clifford uses oil paints, mixed with a wax-like medium and scrapes with a pallet knife to give a rough effect. The protest art is designed to inspire dialogue and promote awareness of Utah’s air quality.
“It’s not given an appropriate sense of urgency,” Clifford said.
Her work will be converted into more simplistic designs that can be screen printed onto patches and banners and distributed for clean air quality rallies.
Art by Casey Clifford
More articles like this in ‘Student Innovation @ the U!’
Find this article and a lot more in the 2018 “Student Innovation @ the U” report. The publication is presented by the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute to celebrate student innovators, change-makers and entrepreneurs.
