Dedicated to our friends and families, and to our family not yet known, not yet born. Dedicated to all the children of all species for all time.
- rewritten from William McDonough

Perhaps each of us has a favorite spot along the coast. Looking out over it, we may find ourselves asking, will it survive?  For this reason, 1,320 artists are joining to create For the Seventh Generation, a free-standing, two-foot by mile-long painting dedicated to ocean protection. When the panomural is complete, every mile of the California, Oregon, and Washington coastline will be represented by an artist who has created a four-foot section of the total mural – conceptually a continuous landscape, a panorama of the western coastline.​
​The ocean is continually under threat. Pollution, coastal development, and over-fishing all tax the health of its finite system. Without our strong environmental conscience and a voice to express it, threats to the ocean will be left unchallenged and its health subject to the whim and manipulations of politics and industry. This project, extending through the twenty-first century, provides such a voice.

Why Seven Generations
The ocean will always be under siege by humans. Problems today will be compounded by the unknown problems of the future. There will always be problems that must be addressed - and short term commitment will not suffice. We need to start thinking long-term—seven generations and beyond.

Why We Do It
We are artists inspired by living things and the landscape, and we want to express this inspiration in an effort that is both collective and individual. Each artist’s creation is one voice in a chorus of ocean paintings. Each painting argues the ocean’s value. The mural is a positive painting of our coastline that lets us speak to people across the nation about the beauty we experience, wish to preserve, and want to use in a rational manner.

Project Overview
How it works: each person chooses a mile, to revisit and paint each year, joining a system of self-sustaining coastal watchers. To be renewed annually, this process work gives the artist the opportunity to intellectually and emotionally connect with the land and to take the role of both sentinel and chronicler of a specific ocean location.

Goals
- To create each year a two foot by one-mile, free-standing painting, a panorama that includes images from each mile of the California, Oregon and Washington coastline.

- To create a system of ocean observers, so any untoward action on the ocean or its accompanying landscape will not go unnoticed.

- To create a financially self-sustaining foundation for artists.

- To generate money to create formats that foster critical discussion, as well as provide grants for appropriate groups and individuals.

View our open call for artists!

---

​FOR SEVENTH GENERATION BLOG

​View "For the Seventh Generation" catalogs from the Pajaro Valley Arts Center in Watsonville, California, and  from the Mendocino Arts Center exhibition.

Ocean's Festival 2001 - (Catalog Design by Shae Uisna)

Ocean'sFestival2001.pdf
File Size:	33882 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

---

For the Seventh Generation 2003 - (Catalog Design by Shae Uisna)

SeventhGeneration2003.pdf
File Size:	39348 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

---

For the Seventh Generation Application
File Size:	116 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

---