How Art Can Influence People's Perception of Climate Change

As an Artist working with wood and stone, I’m always thinking about how materials carry meaning—and how art can make big issues feel close to home. Climate change is one of those topics that can easily feel distant or abstract. The numbers are stark—CO₂ levels hitting record highs, temperatures rising—but sometimes stats alone aren’t enough. That’s where I think art can help.

I remember first seeing a set of “warming stripes”—those simple colour bands showing temperature changes over time. Just a gradient from blue to red, but somehow more powerful than a graph. It stuck with me. Visual cues like that can get through in ways that reports can’t.

Then there are artworks you can stand beside or even inside. Olafur Eliasson’s ice blocks melting outside Tate Modern—10,000-year-old ice disappearing in the middle of a city—say more than any headline. I’ve also seen Welsh coastal towns painting future sea-level rise lines on buildings. A blue mark above a café door hits differently when it’s your café.

I’ve helped lead community builds where beach plastic becomes sculpture—everyone cutting, shaping, weaving waste into something new. People leave changed. They’ve held the problem in their hands.

For me, climate-focused making doesn’t have to shout. A carved waymarker etched with temperature data, or a sculpture shaped from driftwood washed ashore—it can quietly hold meaning. It can start a conversation.

I’m exploring ways to bring more of that into my own practice. If you’ve got a climate-craft idea or want to collaborate, feel free to drop me a message on Instagram @jamielawrence_art or through my website.