Eight-year-old artist Aria Luna is calling attention to the problem of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans that’s impacting the livelihood of millions and decimating marine life. Her latest exhibit and first solo show, an interactive installation titled Fusion Tide, engages visitors in a quest to defeat a monster spawned from the plastics swirling in the sea. Fusion Tide is currently on display at Google headquarters in Mountain View, California and will continue on to other venues in 2019.

The world’s oceans are so polluted with plastic that experts say we could see one pound of plastic for every three pounds of fish in the next decade. Aria Luna, the daughter of an author and producer long active in the field of sustainability, feels it’s important to speak up.

“The world is being polluted by tons of plastic that is getting into the ocean. If the ocean dies, we die,” she says. “I hope my art will inspire people to stop littering, stop using plastic and help the oceans. And I thought it would be more intriguing to make this story fantastical, so it wouldn’t just be all real-life… so I created my own world of fantasy creatures in the sea.”

Coming from a long line of artists and engineers, the young Latina painter is becoming known not just for her bold use of color and texture but leveraging her creativity and imagination for good. Her first public exhibit, Dragon Storm, generated funds for the communities impacted by the Santa Rosa wildfires in 2017. With Fusion Tide, Aria Luna takes on the pervasive global issue of plastics that are polluting our food chains from plankton through apex predators and killing marine life at an unprecedented rate.

Fusion Tide features seven large-format pieces including several 3D works created from household plastics. The exhibit invites visitors to “PLEASE TOUCH” and challenges them to find the five clues that will reveal the key to defeating Bogo Mogo, the plastic monster. Accompanied by facts about ocean ecosystems and plastic pollution, and ideas on how to stem the growing volumes of plastic we use every day, the exhibit aims to raise awareness about the plight of our oceans and inspire people to take action to protect them.

Earlier this year, Aria Luna donated posters of Fynn the Sea Dragon, the first character from Fusion Tide to be completed, to Blue Frontier for their first annual March for the Ocean in Washington, DC and the Huntington Arts Council in New York, to help raise awareness and funds for both organizations.

Aria Luna hopes Fusion Tide will galvanize young and old to join the fight against plastics destroying our seas, devastating our food chains, and killing the creatures that live in the oceans.

ABOUT ARIA LUNA

Aria Luna is one of the world’s youngest exhibiting artists and a changemaker who uses the power of her art to raise public awareness of and support for issues impacting local and global communities. Her work has raised funds for such causes as ocean conservation and wildfire relief. Bold and whimsical, Aria Luna’s artistic expression runs the spectrum of color palette and media, blending watercolor, acrylics and oil pastels with india inks and mixed materials. Her art evokes the rich, colorful world that children see—the impossible and dreamed made real. She has studied masters such as Picasso, Matisse, and Van Gogh, whose styles naturally mesh with her own innate expression.

Aria Luna’s exhibits include Dragon Storm, a modular mural depicting an epic dragon battle, and Fusion Tide, an interactive seven-piece installation addressing the topic of plastic pollution of our oceans. She is the recipient of First Place for grades 2 – 4 in the 2018 California Invasive Species Action Week youth art competition, sponsored by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. When she’s not drawing or painting, Aria Luna enjoys swimming, rollerblading, bird watching, and saving bees in swimming pools.

Aria Luna’s web site is www.arialuna.com. Follow her on Instagram.