Art makes [the] world better and more beautiful. Try to find real art everywhere and let it inspire you,” 16 year-old artist Joanna Wirażka says. A self-taught artist from Poland, Wirażka paints breathtaking artwork on fallen leaves she collects from a park near her house.

She painted her first leaf on New Year’s Eve of last year, and she told Upworthy that she was “inspired by the brilliant hues of the fireworks in the night sky.”

And since that first leaf, she has kept on painting.

Wirażka says she is fascinated with the bright lights of metropolises such as New York, London and Los Angeles. Her dream is to see these cities in person one day.

“Art is my cure for stress — [a] hobby which fills my life. When I paint and draw, I forget everything and let my imagination create new things or just bring new reflections through painting,” she told the Huffington Post.

But she also has a powerful message for the world — that we desperately need to take care of our planet.

I wanted to say that we don’t have to cut trees to have paper for drawing or painting. I think it’s important to raise people’s awareness about the really bad condition of our planet,” she says of her reason for painting on fallen leaves. She so elegantly portrays the damage deforestation is doing to our planet in this piece:

Save our environment Since 1978 over 750,000 square kilometers (289,000 square miles) of Amazon rainforest have been destroyed across Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Venezuela, Suriname, Guyana, and French Guiana. Common methods of deforestation are burning trees and clear cutting. Deforestation is considered to be one of the contributing factors to global climate change. The No. 1 problem caused by deforestation is the impact on the global carbon cycle. Because of destroying rainforest thousand species are deprived of their natural home and environment. 9,000 species are going extinct each year. Every second . . we lose an area the size of two football fields! Every minute . . we lose an area 29 times the size of the Pentagon! Every hour . . . we lose an area 684 times larger than the New Orleans Superdome! Every day . . . we lose an area larger than all five boroughs of New York City! Every week . . . we lose an area twice the size of Rhode Island! Every month . . .we lose an area the size of Belize! Every year . . . we lose an area more than twice the size of Florida! There're many reasons why we destroy rainforest, we do it in orther to have a timber to create commercial items such as paper, furniture and homes, to make more land available for housing and urbanization. But we can save rainforests establishing parks to protect rainforests and wildlife, raising awarness and orther... Think. #dibujosAsombrosos #buchac #art #arts_realistic #arts_help #arts_gallery#sketch_daily #worldofartists #worldoftalents #worldofpencils #featuring_artx #arp_art #phanasu #artfido #daily_art #art_spotlight #artofadraiwing #leaf #awirazka16 #wildlife #love #green #galaxy #illustration #instagood #instaphoto #drawing #art_mag Sad bird in the right corner x

Joanna Wirażkaさん(@awirazka16)が投稿した写真 -

Stunning? Absolutely.

But don’t forget, she also has many other brilliant works of art that aren’t on leaves that you’ll love too. She posts her artwork on her Instagram, so keep yourself updated!


By - grape Japan editorial staff.