“Pink Flag” is a celebration of hope and resilience. The child in the painting, wearing a crown of golden myrtle—symbolic of a bloodless victory—is in the act of staking a pink flag into the ground. They emerge from a dark, atmospheric landscape as though from an unnamed danger. The animal companions are a rosefinch and a pangolin, both species facing threats of climate change, habitat loss and in the case of the latter, trafficking. Venomous Malaysian blue coral snakes and medicinal lion’s tail flowers twine on the figure’s dress, symbolizing killing and healing elements. Throughout, there is a sense of light and dark, of paradise lost and found. (Fatima Ronquillo)