“Young Love” was inspired by a photograph I took while sitting at a restaurant in Old Havana. Old Havana was buzzing with noises of laughter. Children were making their way home after school and you could hear some of them running around, others laughing out loud.

There were groups of children playing in the square. I spotted this boy and girl walking away from the group saying goodbye to their friends. Just as I took the photo the boy looked back to his friends and gave them a thumbs up, looking very proud as he had a beautiful girl at his side. The sight of young love.

The background of the painting is creating to represent that of a romantic sunset that they are walking off into, made from a variety of different recycled materials.

Title: “Young Love”

Dimensions: 900 mm x 600mm

Medium: Mixed Medium (Acrylic Paint, candy wrappers, canvas packaging, paint boxes and cereal boxes)

About the author, Mariska

Hi and welcome! My name is Mariska. I am originally from South Africa, but now call the world my home. I am an artist, designer, environmentalist, podcast host and speaker.

I started the Mama Earth Talk podcast in 2018 to share some of the things that I learned about just how easy it can be to reduce your impact on the environment. This then quickly grew into a forum that showcases the amazing things that many people are doing to make the planet better, and further into a source of hope and inspiration for many. A few of the amazing guests include Zero Waste Queen, Bea Johnson, Claude Silver, Kathryn Kellogg and zero waste chef Max La Manna.

If you do not already I urge you to follow me and my journey on social media (@designbymariska), and to refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle and rot your own waste using the handy tips I post!