Global Warning – Mural by Beyond Basics Art Class Students

The Center’s Beyond Basics Art Class presents a special collaborative art project created by Rich Tokeshi’s students, titled Global Warning. The two murals relate the impact of climate change on the land and sea.  Please enjoy the two murals shown below, as well as brief biographies and descriptions of the mural components and poetry provided by the individual artists in the Beyond Basics Art Class.

Beyond Basics Art Class:

Rich Tokeshi
My name is Rich Tokeshi. I have been coordinating the JCCCNC art class that has come to be known as “Beyond Basic Art” for 10 years.

• 21 “Tsunami in Thailand, 2004”
  Climate change has intensified global disasters like the giant earthquake & tsunami that struck Southeast Asia in 2004, causing many deaths & much destruction.
• 2 “Modern Landscape”
  Wind turbines have come to dominate the contemporary landscape as electrical power & other sources of power replace gas & oil for sustainable energy.

Cynthia Sasaki
Cynthia joined the class in 2016, and is a personal chef and volunteer at Kimochi Senior Nutrition program, as well as a volunteer at FAMSF Flower Committee at deYoung and Legion of Honor
She is a retired Japanese Bilingual teacher at SFUSD and a retired Nihonmachi Little Friends teacher and staff cook.

• 29 Dead Fish
• 26 Coral Reefs
• 18 Kelp Forest

The song of
Indigenous peoples
melting sea ice
unstable erosion
warming waters
kill migrating fish
in coastal and river
floodplains
—Demand Environmental Justice—

Shioko Seab
I worked in the Japanese Bilingual Bicultural Program in S.F. public schools as a teacher’s aide for 4 years & as well as Japanese overseas’ Saturday school for 10 years. After I retired teaching, I had been SFBG flower arranger for 30 years, and the Flower arranger at the lobby of the Conservatory of Flower for 4 years.

• 25 Plastic Pollution in the Ocean
• 20 The Future of the Whole Country
• 6 Under the Sea Level
• 4 CO2 Increase on Earth

Ann Pappas
I am a retired public school teacher. I joined Rich’s art class in January of 2023. I work mostly acrylic and watercolor,

• 5 Earth
• 12 Smokestacks
• 28 Blue Ocean

Pam Tau
Currently an active social justice busybody I retired in 2011 from a 30 year career in environmental and occupational public health. I missed being able to express my passion for issues of environmental justice and I missed my wonderful co-workers. At first I joined Rich’s art class mainly to do art, but I quickly found that this class not only fulfilled my need to express how I feel
about issues of the day but most importantly there is joy, friendship, encouragement, growth, support and community every Saturday at 10 am. Feeling blessed. I joined the art class in 2013.

• 7 Protect the Sacred – Prayer from Ocean Beach
  On June 20, 2021 I learned on the news that a whale had washed up on Ocean Beach just 2 miles down the street from where I live. For cultures around the world the whale is a sacred being symbolizing wisdom, abundance, peace, spiritual awareness. I set out and joined with others to pay my respect to this magnificent being. The California Academy of Sciences performed an autopsy and found evidence of bruising and hemorrhaging that may have been the result of being hit by a ship. Due to climate change, noise pollution, entanglement, and ship strikes the number of dead whales along the Pacific coast since 2019 had been increasing. This moved me to paint Prayer from Ocean Beach, it is a call to address harms due to human activity.
• 13 Keep the Oil in the Soil
  Two dear sheros indigenous women leaders Pennie Opal Plant co-founder of Idle No More in SF Bay Area, and Cold Lake Elder Clan Grandmother Keeper of the Water Nancy Scanie protector of tar sands oil of Alberta Canada reached out urging me to join with others to protest the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project to dredge in the SF Bay. The Army Corps would dredge deep channels into the basin floor of the Bay to allow the passage of newer and larger oil tankers to transport Tar Sands oil to be refined at the Philips 66 refinery in Rodeo. While the Army Corps of Engineers claimed that dredging would not cause harm, indigenous leaders, environmental groups noted otherwise. They pointed to the disturbance of toxic chemicals at the bottom of the Bay and the harms it would cause; increased traffic issues arising from these larger and faster vessels, and increased air pollution from the refinery. I participated in mobilizing a large protest outside the U.S. Army Corps, that day we not only shut down Market Street traffic but representatives from the Army Corps asked to meet with the indigenous leaders to discuss why we were protesting. Several weeks later we learned that the Army Corps quietly shelved the project, this inspired me to paint this Keep the Oil in the Soil story.
• 11 Resiliency and Beauty in the Aftermath
  2020 was the record setting year for California wildfires and we were introduced to the term “gigafire,” a wildfire that burns at lease a million acres of land. A year later many of the 600,000 displaced Californians were slowly returning home to rebuild and resettle. At the same time seeds and trees were also starting to show signs of life. I discovered that there are flowers which bloom after forest fires. In Northern California it is the Baker’s globe and it’s brilliant pink and yellow flower that caught my eye and moved me to paint Resiliency and Beauty in the Aftermath.
• 16 And the Sky Turned Orange
  After 13 days of smoke from the 2018 California Camp Wildfire, I emailed Vida who lived with her family in an SRO (single room occupancy unit) in Chinatown. While residents across the Bay Area were advised to shut their windows and shelter in place, she sent me the following, “When the window in our unit is closed it is very hard to breath so we need to leave it open. I wear a mask to protect me from the smoke particulates.” I was inspired to paint the photo she shared with me as she studies the sky from her roof.
• 17 King Tides 2020
  I joined a group at the SF Embarcadero to learn about the King Tides that were strikingly visible along the piers. We were at the base of Washington street as water would occasionally splash high enough to make us scatter. We learned that the sewage plant serving the local residents including Chinatown could get backed up if water from the tides traveled up the block on Washington. The health of Bay View residents are also under threat if rising waters and King Tides continue to be a part of living near the Bay.

Kay Nomura
After retiring from education in early 2000, I began dabbling with things that interested me. I eventually found Rich Tokeshi’s art class at JCCCNC in 2013. The class grew from 3 to over 10 students, from “Basic Art” to “Beyond Basic Art”. With inspiration from Rich and members of the class, I’ve experimented with various forms of art and medium. My favorite medium is soft pastels and pencils. My favorite themes have to do with nature and animals.

• 1 Why I Cry
  Hot sun and no rain
  Dried earth with nothing growing
  Tears for our children
• 23 Bottles, Bottles Everywhere
  It was once pristine
  Beautiful and magical
  Now slowly dyingMedium: Pastels and Colored Pencils

Karen Wing
I am a retired postal worker. I joined Rich’s art class in 2016. We have been experimenting with many different mediums, but the ones I enjoy using most are soft pastels and inktense blocks.

• 30 Keep the oil in the earth
  Pipeline breaks
  Oil spills
  Pelican cries
• 3 Rice plant
  The rice plant is our life
  Surviving the drought
  Gives us hope
• 27 Melting Glacier
  Frozen glacier
  Once home to many
  Now floating away

Katharine Snyder
I have had the privilege of being in Rich Tokeshi’s art class for almost 7 years. I find it a wonder complement to the floral designing that I volunteer to do at the fine arts museums here in town.

• 22 Tsunami Wave
  Gouache
  2023
• 15 Yanomami Quiver
  Water color
  2023

Barbara Armstrong
Through his art classes, Rich Tokeshi has given me the encouragement and confidence to experiment with different media. I live out-of-state and am so happy to be able to participate on Zoom.

• 9 Exit Glacier, Seward, Alaska
  Watercolor and ink
  You can hike to the Exit Glacier along a trail that is getting longer each year as the glacier recedes. Signs on the trail with dates indicate where the tip of the glacier used to be.

Eva Monroe
Retired very active San Franciscan. I joined the art class in 2019.

• 24 Coral reefs
  Climate induced sea warming steals life from our coral reefs
  Medium: Micron pen, watercolor, pastels
• 10 Climate Change Induced Dried Lake Bed

Mark Thoma
I am a retired medical social worker. I joined Rich’s class in 2018. I also write poetry.

• 14 Ginkgo in Autumn
  The ginkgo is the oldest surviving tree species, its family extending back 290 million years. I consider this tree our grandmother, our grandfather.
• 33 Origin Endings
  When I look at cave paintings, petroglyphs, or rock paintings created by our ancestors thousands of years ago, I see an experience of wonder and praise expressed in human language and imagination. Humanity trying to locate itself in this beautiful world. The mistreatment by humans onto the world and each other reflects back onto us our forgetfulness and the delusion of separateness.

Ruth Chang White
After working for 15+ years as a medical interpreter in a non profit organization in TN, we moved to the bay area. This is now my third year working for the EEOC and it brought me new knowledge and experience. A year ago I joined the Beyond Basic Art class by instructor: Rich Tokeshi on Saturdays and it has been a wonderful experience, and such a great environment meeting all those amazing artists.

• 19 “Hope in blue”
  It is a watercolor technique, my intention is to contribute actively to live in an eco-friendly and sustainable tomorrow, keeping the sky and the ocean blue and free of waste, so let’s do what we can!

Heather Pazimo
When I was 8, my father entered my drawing in a contest to celebrate the opening of the (then) brand new Peace Plaza in SF’s Japantown. (I received an honorable mention.) In 2016, I began taking drawing classes with Rich Tokeshi at JCCCNC, where my love of drawing was reignited, and where I have found inspiration and wisdom from my fellow artists.

• 8 My Home is on Fire
  soft pastels