Jessica Moon Bernstein-Schiano

Mural Location: 1600 Pearl St. Boulder, CO 80302 (Alley behind Outside)

This mural is activated in Augmented Reality! Download and open the Artivive app and capture the entire mural on your device’s camera to access the digital layer in person or on your computer screen.

Jessica Moon Bernstein-Schiano believes that climate change is the most pressing issue facing our world. “Climate Change Revealed” illustrates how rising temperatures and other human impacts on the environment affect Boulder. 

Jessica took global temperature data dating from 1850 to the present and incorporated it into the mural. Each vertical inch represents the average temperature for that year. The stripes transform from dark to light blue and then light to dark red as the years pass, representing rising temperatures and our warming planet. 

The wheat-pasted elements bring the mural back to Boulder. Jessica wheat-pasted a historical image of Chief Niwot, also known as Chief Left Hand. Chief Niwot was a leader of the Southern Arapaho people who lived along the Front Range and spent winters in Boulder Valley. Local legend tells of the Curse of Chief Niwot. The legend goes that he proclaimed, “People seeing the beauty of this valley will want to stay, and their staying will be the undoing of the beauty.” Chief Niwot made this statement upon meeting the first white settlers of the area who were searching for gold. 

As more and more people have migrated to Boulder, development has resulted in the loss of natural resources and habitat for many animals (as well as pushed out Indigenous communities). Jessica places the silhouettes of these endangered species in Chief Niwot’s vision. Animals such as black-footed ferrets, lynxes, and herons remain threatened in the Boulder area. 

Using @artiviveapp, Jessica worked with @mr.hanimal to activate her mural in augmented reality. The AR layer toggles through various temperature data sets, showing heat indexes for the world, North America, the United States, and finally Colorado. 

Jessica hopes to honor the cultures and history of Native American people with this mural. It is especially important to listen to Indigenous voices and communities, who have stewarded this land for centuries, as we fight and find solutions to climate change.

About the Artist:

@jessicamoon.art

Using a wide variety artistic mediums to raise awareness about our planet's environmental challenges is the focus of my work. Climate change, the waste stream, and endangered species are various subjects that influence my work and are expressed in my art. I believe the human impact on our planet's environment is one of the most pressing issues of our time and one which often invokes a sense of powerlessness. I aim to confront these overwhelming concerns through my art practice, addressing issues that our society tends to neglect or deny. I hope to inspire and remind audiences of what we have as well as what we stand to lose if we do not take action.