Award-winner lets art do the talking
Silarat Chunchevn holds up a poster featuring her painting.
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She's shy and doesn't talk much, but one of 11-year-old Silarat Chunchevn's paintings said it all when it won the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)'s Asia-Pacific region annual painting competition.
Dealing with a difficult theme - Deserts and Desertification - Silarat's painting beat off the challenge of more than 3,500 other entries. "My painting shows a land dry and cracked because of desertification," she said. "And it shows a simple but great way to prevent and heal the problem - planting trees," said Silarat, a sixth-grader at Sarasarnsamutsarn School in Bangkok. Her oil painting shows a man carrying a bucket of seedlings and a small spade walking across a patch of dry, cracked earth. But from each of his footprints springs an oasis. "Wherever the planter walks becomes green. Anyway . . . trees can eradicate desertification, that's what I mean," she said, adding that the painting took her three days. The UN competition has been held annually since 1990 and has received more than 160,000 entries from children aged six to 14 in more than 100 countries. This year's theme of Deserts and Desertification matches that of World Environment Day, to be marked on June 5. A jury, comprised of an art teacher and representatives from the UNEP, Bayer Thai and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment judged Silarat's work to be the best in the region. "To explain desertification to those removed from its effects isn't easy, and Silarat has artfully brought this story home to us with a message of hope," said UNEP Asia-Pacific regional director Surendra Shrestha. "I hope we all draw inspiration from the message she brings." When asked whether she thought her work would inspire her friends and other youths to save the environment, she replied simply: "I hope so." For her efforts Silarat receives a US$1,000 (Bt37,600) cash prize and an all-expenses-paid trip for her and an adult to the official cerebration of World Environment Day, in Algiers, Algeria, on June 5. It is in Algiers that the world winner of the painting competition will be announced. At the global level, Silarat is competing against entries from West Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe and North America. Silarat has been an avid painter since she was at kindergarten, but began in earnest two years ago, when she begged her parents to send her to a weekend painting club. In her first year with the club she won a national painting contest with the topic "Rice is Life", organised by the Thai Rice Foundation and under royal patronage. In her second year she won another two national painting contests. The UNEP competition was the first time she had competed internationally, so obviously she was delighted with her win. "I'm so happy and so proud of the award," she said, sporting a shy smile. Silarat said she dreams of being a doctor, but hopes she'll always find time to pull out her brush and easel. Weerachai Pitakpaisalpakorn, Silarat's teacher at the Baan Silplaparaksilp Club, said he was proud of his student, because this year's theme was a tough one.
"She's shy and doesn't say all that much, but she has great concentration and always asks questions," said Weerachai of his pupil. "And when she had the initial idea, she researched the topic," he said. Chatrarat Kaewmorakot The Nation
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