Artist creates stunning portraits of partially submerged women on melting icebergs

An artist hoping to bring attention to the topic of climate change painted a series of murals on fractured icebergs from a melting glacier.

New York City based Hawaiian street artist Sean Yuro who also goes by Hula, recently announced his new series of works entitled A’o ‘Ana which translates into The Warning.

'I hope they ignite a sense of urgency, as they represent the millions of people in need of our help who are already being affected from the rising sea levels of climate change,' wrote the artist on his website.

Hula recently traveled to Iceland where he saw the quickly melting glaciers first-hand. The artist paddled out to the icebergs and painted realistic portraits of partially submerged women on the glaciers themselves.

'Just in the short week I was there, the icebergs all around me were constantly cracking and flipping,' Hula told CNN.

Hula says that by now his portraits may have already melted. 'I would have given it a week or two, maximum,' he said.

Hula says that the women in the portraits represent the millions of people who will be negatively impacted by rising sea levels worldwide.

'The portrait represents the millions of people in need of our help who are already being affected from the rising sea levels of climate change.'

Hula was able to paint on the ice by first applying an acrylic sheet that he said is similar to Plexiglas.

'I had been experimenting with different techniques to be able to paint on ice and the best way was to have an acrylic ground. Thus, I mounted these very thin sheets by drilling screws into the ice.'

Hula also uses cracked surfboards as a surface to paint his female portraits.

Hula was constantly fighting nature in his search to find the perfect iceberg to paint on.

'It took us a whole day of searching until the right one came along and I was able to set up and paint. The currents didn't help either, as the quicker the iceberg moved, the more it melted,' he told CNN.

Hula had to paint at night as well so as not to be seen. Hula used a surfboard to paddle out to the iceberg and he climbed on the structure with ice picks.

'I do think we headed in the right direction with these actions we are taking to flight global warming, but we are later in responding and need to quicken the pace of action if we want to keep this world safe for our future generations.'

Hula said painting on the glaciers gives nature emotions.

'One of the exciting things about painting portraits is being able to bring life and emotion to objects and surfaces that were once without. All these figures seem to match with the moods, a mysterious surreal combination, he said.

Despite the oil paintings lasting only a short amount of time, Hula says he likes the fact that his art has an expiration date, much like the icebergs themselves.

'Oil paint outdoors definitely isn’t the best and it doesn’t last nearly as long as acrylics, but I kinda like that my figures have their own lifespan.'

Each painting took around three or four days to complete.