"Good God the Lakes are Lovely!"

• This playful mural in Toronto, Canada by Bruno Smoky hits on the idea of elective migration in pursuit of better habitat.
• The saturated colors and surreal style make this mural easily approachable for younger students.

Positives

• Students bring their own ideas and interpretations to the artwork that develop critical thinking.

• The mural's style and playful colors inspire imagining the world from the fish's point of view.

Additional Prerequisites

• Some background on the Great Lakes' history of use and abuse by people and the impact on that environment is necessary for understanding the artist's intention.

Differentiation

• This piece opens the opportunity to discuss how murals are related to street art.
• Younger students can explore how a fun piece of art can still have deep meanings and what surreal means.
• Older students can use the subject matter as a launch into changing migratory patterns based on environmental impacts by humans.

• Other resources related to these topics include this mural about marine animals' anger towards human's impact on the environment and this video about human impact on aquatic environments.