THE BIGGER PICTURE is an art installation project based on nature, that combines Steve Austin Photography images with 5 participating fine artists from different media backgrounds.  The purpose of the project is to raise funds and bring awareness to the fragility of our environment.  If you think of the world as a collective, we all have one thing in common, our planet.  Every one of us has an individual perspective or story of why we are drawn to nature. This project reflects unique perspectives by uniting a collective of artists, drawing from the same image, creating different works of art.   We have chosen to contribute back to environmental stewardship organizations, Nature Conservancy of Canada and the David Suzuki Foundation as our initial charities. 

 

Steve Austin, photographer and founder of the project states, “It was something that David Attenborough said that struck home to me, “Nature is our greatest ally and our largest source of inspiration”.  Steve believes that it is our responsibility to elevate human consciousness of the scarcity we are creating in our world of resources.  Industry is taxing our planet in all areas including, forestry, water, and more.  Austin’s desire is to create a legacy for future generations.  To raise funds for sustainable and renewable resources that will live on for his and your grandchildren to benefit from.

 

The collective artists for the initial installation are Bobby VandenHoorn, Joelene Mackie, , Alex Fong, Cynthia Gunsinger and Alberta artist, Keith Thompson. 

 

Austin has always had a passion and respect for nature through various forms, “This is one way that I can help out using the skill sets that I have, if we don’t act now, it will be too late for our future generations”, remarks Steve.

 

“The Bigger Picture is a definite play on words to think larger than my own photography works and to think on a larger scale of the way to bring awareness to our environment and the impact we have on our planet and hopefully find that balance between us and our planet.”  “The concept of the bigger picture came to me in a dream. I woke up at 2am and started writing down what I could remember, a real awakening of how to create an event that could make a difference.  I thought how do I expand this idea using my photography as a catalyst for change? It was obvious to me to do it as a group, so I started reaching out to combine forces with fine artists, with the idea of creating a unified body of images of the same scene with a totally different viewpoint, where we remain connected to a subject both literally as a race and figuratively through art. Connecting us in a way that represents us as a whole to our planet”. 

 

Opening his own fine art photography gallery at 1296 Ellis in Kelowna Dec 2019, Steve had always given back a portion of his revenue to enviro causes but felt like it was not enough and knew it was time to leverage the gallery and location for a more focused approach to give back.  “It is a way that I can take action and make a stand in a non-political way to bring awareness though photography and art to our impact on our planet and how extremely fragile this balance is.”

 

I am very proud of this project and blessed to be working alongside such immense talent and people who are like-minded in the cause of conservation and sustainability. As a group we can make a big change!

 

This project will be an ongoing event at the Steve Austin Fine Art Photography Gallery, 1296 Ellis in Kelowna and will be expanding the concept to other artist partnerships and galleries across Canada.

 

When people support people and causes, they are contributing to our future.