About the Contest

On October 29th, 2018, the One Health Center of Excellence launched the “Capture the Movement” contest in celebration of One Health Day 2018. One Health Day, launched in 2016, is a global campaign to bring awareness around the One Health approach. The traditional human-animal-environmental health triangle provides the cornerstone of this approach, and the One Health Center seeks to broaden this scope by engaging with more disciplines such as law, history, language, religion, economics, politics, sustainability, and beyond. One Health Day is officially celebrated on November 3rd, but events around the globe take place during the weeks before and after.

The contest called for University of Florida students to express ideas centered on the impacts that movement brings to health via the visual arts. The goal was to challenge students to think about movement involving people, animals, plants, and the environment using a trans-disciplinary lens. Submissions included photography, video, graphic design, and paintings.

Comments from the winners

Zachariah Chou, the 3rd place winner who submitted ‘At the mercy of the wind’, said, “I wanted my piece to make people think about how pollution has no boundaries and to re-enforce the idea that we have to work together as a global community to help tackle many different challenges that will arise in the future.”

Lukas Pidgeon, the 2nd place winner, said the following about movement and art: “Life is a series of transitions. The transition of places, views, and thoughts is movement. This movement is life. Without the transitions, life would be static, uninteresting, and honestly lifeless. Just as a bird captures a thermal updraft or a surfer rides a wave, we too are moving along with the currents of nature, society, and ourselves. The ability to see these currents creates an understanding of how to interact with life in new and interesting ways. The act of interaction is an art of life and to interact with life is to be alive. So, one can say, life is an art, is beautiful, and is revered.

“In order to capture life in a painting, it requires a motion. The painting needs transition. I desire for my paintings to touch the soul of the viewer and form a personal narrative for the viewer. My paintings are a work of inspiration, but I also want them to inspire. I wish for the viewer to challenge themselves to allow the art to influence them emotionally. The emotional response in the mind is the first to respond to a stimulus. Then the logical response comes to mediate the emotion. My art is intended to inspire a story. The act of creating my art is an emotional event. After much self-reflection then does the logic of my art appear. I hope after viewing my art you too, will be inspired on your own logical and emotional story.”

To see the submitted artworks and read the artists’ statements, visit our website.

0