Posters promote protection of the planet

For a Dunedin hobby artist, seeing her poster on display at the museum was a special moment.

The winning and highly commended entries for the 2023 Great Kiwi Poster Competition are on display at Tuhura Otago Museum until May 19.

Radiation therapist Tessa Sherlock, of Dunedin, said it was awesome to be able to take her family to the museum to see her art on display.

She said now that she was an adult she was not drawing or doing much art and so the competition was a fun creative outlet.

She spent her evenings working away at her poster on Adobe Illustrator for a few weeks.

Ms Sherlock said she had a background in zoology and wanted to showcase wildlife coexisting with people.

"People don't really care about wildlife unless they can experience it.

"You don’t care about animals going extinct unless you can connect with them."

Her poster included New Zealand bees, her favourite birds and people enjoying nature.

Intermediate category winner Danielle Wu, 15, of Wellington, was visiting the exhibition at the museum yesterday with her family.

She said she cared a lot about nature and loved doing art.

She hand-painted her poster using acrylic paint and wanted to illustrate what could happen to the planet if people did not "protect our future" — the competition’s theme.

Competition organiser Bruce Mahalski said there were more than 200 entries at a high standard.

The winners won $1000 each.

One of the competition’s sponsor Phantom Bill Stickers were also helping display winners’ posters in cities across New Zealand.

mark.john@odt.co.nz