Make Your Mark Community Painting

"Make Your Mark" is a community art project aimed at promoting climate action in Sacramento. The Office of Climate Action and Sustainability -- under the guidance of Artist in Residence, Taner Pasamehmetoglu -- collaborated with community members on an abstract painting to demonstrate the collective effort sustainability requires from all of us.

Utilizing cool-colored, upcycled paints to symbolize actions that reduce heat and emissions, the project represented rapid extreme heat rise in Sacramento and empowered communities about the ways we can address extreme heat together.

Watch this time-lapse video to celebrate the energy and commitment of the Sacramento community!

Project impact

Around 100 Sacramento residents contributed to the painting! Everyone found unique ways to make their mark, combining fun and climate change conversations for all ages and backgrounds.

The community painting engaged with residents across North Sacramento (Hagginwood Spring Family Social), South Sacramento (Back to the Boulevard), and the Central City (ECOS Earth Day) April 2024.

The "Make Your Mark" painting is installed at the Hagginwood Community Center, one of the locations where the painting was created.

Artist and residents paint together open_in_full

What do the painting colors represent?

The warm-colored base layer (reds, oranges, and yellows) represents extreme heat in our community. Participants painted over the warm colors with cool colors (blues, greens, grays), symbolically "cooling off" the extreme heat in our city. Each cool-colored paint bottle was paired with a tangible way Sacramento residents can reduce extreme heat. 

Cool colors to key actions

All paints were upcycled from the Sacramento Recycling and Reuse Center. 

Cool colored painting bottles with key sustainability actions open_in_full

Still want to make your mark?

Making your mark on climate action doesn't stop with the painting! Some of the best ways to make your mark are to:

These actions all help us to ensure a more livable Sacramento for now and generations to come.

Make Your Mark graphic: embrace the City of Trees, electrify your home, and ditch traffic to ride your bike open_in_full

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