26 September 2025
By Cookie Ganpicha Sahasakul
This Singaporean illustrator and children’s book author works with environmental experts to bring scientific concepts to life. Dorcas Tang practices sustainability by leading through example, treating herself and others with the same kindness and respect she has for the earth.
Dorcas Tang Wen Yu had always been interested in giving back to her community, but it wasn’t until the pandemic that she transitioned into her current creative practice, “Earth to Dorcas”, where whimsical art transforms eco-action into fun and memorable community-building opportunities.
Since 2017, this Singaporean illustrator has been livening up her community with watercolour, digital art, murals, and more. Today, she paints roadmaps to a kinder future where people live in harmony with nature. Dorcas explains, “When we have an illustration of [a sustainable future], people can hold onto that vision of what things could be instead.”
Dorcas’ online journey started during the pandemic as a freelance artist. Though she grew up with watercolours, Dorcas wanted to incorporate sustainable practices in her art and reduce her reliance on paper. She began drawing about climate issues after her transition to digital art, and when her posts critiquing consumerism started to gain traction, she fully committed to posting about environmentalist themes.
As people turned to social media for human connection, Dorcas built her following by providing hopeful alternatives to an algorithm that rewards shock and outrage. She believes that by showing the ideal outcomes of climate action, such as flourishing biodiversity and a kinder society, even in the form of whimsical talking animals, her art can help ease climate anxiety.
Today, as an accomplished artist with an interest in sustainability, experts reach out to Dorcas for collaborations. Having no formal training in environmental science, Dorcas sees her non-expert status as a strength when it comes to making sustainability accessible to a general audience.
Every project is different, with Dorcas discussing with experts to understand the needs of each collaboration. Experts provide the scientific background, while Dorcas suggests memorable visual components to fulfill the brief, such as colourful infographics or signage in public areas to raise awareness about issues like threats to marine biodiversity.
She works to understand what draws experts to their fields. “I look for that magic and almost childlike wonder.” If something is exciting to an expert even after years of study, Dorcas reasons, it could serve as an emotional hook to get non-experts excited and engaged about the topic, even though they might lack the technical knowledge. Relying on universal human emotions makes her audience more likely to engage with messages on sustainability.
This process of trusting an expert’s sense of wonder to shape the story’s direction came into play when she spoke of her writing partner, Cuifen Pui, a local food sustainability advocate and compost artisan. The pair met through the Singapore Youth for Climate Action (SYCA), a group empowering Singaporean youths to fight for equitable climate policies.
Explaining the science of composting, Cuifen described microbes as “little people living inside the soil”: “If you take care of them and feed them food scraps, they become very happy.”
Inspired by Cuifen’s passion for the topic, the pair set out to create “The Three Hungry Microbes,” a children’s book about the science and practice of composting.
Rendered in vibrant colours, the book is told from the perspective of cute little microbes who want to munch on food scraps and party. The story breaks down composting into easy-to-follow steps with fun visuals, making the process accessible to children and their parents. It also comes bundled with downloadable activity sheets that further elaborate on the science of composting, featuring a step-by-step guide to help ease readers into the practice.
By personifying sustainability concepts as characters who speak for themselves, Dorcas’ explanations are often more accessible than purely technical or scientific perspectives alone. Eye-catching art, lovable characters, and a focus on wonder and excitement all help to sustain non-experts’ interest in more obscure topics (like composting) long enough to understand and implement new eco-friendly habits. The authors hope that readers will be excited to keep the party going by making compost in their community gardens and learning to care for sustainable produce.
As an artist, Dorcas strives to be open-minded and empathetic, acknowledging that her creative practice represents the culmination of a long journey of self discovery. In 2023, unable to reconcile her studies with her love of art, Dorcas dropped out of architecture school, breaking her scholarship bond. What followed was a year of therapy to reconnect with herself and the earth.
“Before, I thought sustainability was about doing as much as you can to be the most moral, best person that you can be.” Now, she thinks of sustainability not just in terms of caring for the planet, but for herself as well. She challenges hustle culture with a gentler, more mindful approach inspired by nature. “I realised that part of the climate crisis is because we expect ourselves to be in summer all the time. We have to do more and more to meet the constant demand for profit.”
Dorcas tries to treat herself how she wants to treat the earth: with kindness, respect, and patience. “When I’m resting, it’s not unproductive. It’s what is needed to bring about creation.” Being more mindful about the projects she takes up and honoring her body has helped Dorcas avoid burnout as an independent creative.
Once she began to live as her authentic self, Dorcas realised she enjoyed working on vibrant, child-like illustrations, impactful storytelling, and working with kids. “What do these things combined look like? Oh, that’s a children’s book.”
While children’s books remain a valuable medium through which kids and parents can learn together, the internet is changing the way children learn about the world around them.
Dorcas finds young people today more scientifically literate and environmentally conscious than previous generations due to their social media exposure. She was surprised when a 7-year-old accurately explained the concept of microplastics. She felt inspired to create more age-appropriate environmental content that still challenges and expands kids’ knowledge.
At the same time, she reflected on her impact: “Engagement online doesn’t directly translate to real life change. It’s very easy for people to just scroll past.” Returning to her values of community service, Dorcas felt she could be a more effective artist and educator by meeting people in person.
While social media is still the primary medium through which Dorcas networks and shares her work, she has shifted her focus to in-person and community-based projects. Anecdotes from the community provide valuable feedback where social media engagement alone cannot tell the whole story.
When planning community-based activities with local experts, Dorcas likes to introduce collaborative drawing or mural painting sessions to make the experience more memorable. “I like the idea of everybody coming together to work on something really big and colourful.”
She finds mural painting to be especially valuable as part of expert-led workshops, where spending time drawing and painting encourages participants to review and reflect on what they have learned. Creating art together also serves as an icebreaker, helping build community among young, like-minded environmentalists.
Singaporeans face many restrictions when it comes to modifying public spaces, so when Dorcas was able to provide opportunities to paint on walls and courtyards, it became a memorable experience for kids and seniors alike. By giving people a sense of connection to their homes, community mural-painting can reinforce environmentalist messages like appreciating local bird biodiversity and keeping neighborhoods litter-free.
“I heard that when kids see their friends littering, they literally take them to the mural [they painted] and tell them off. I laughed so much when I heard that!”
Fans have also reached out to let Dorcas know how they’ve used her signs as educational tools to caution people against removing intertidal animals from their natural beach habitats.
While Dorcas believes the Singaporean education system has become easier to navigate for young people interested in the arts, the social stigma has yet to catch up. Even with social media opening doors for budding artists, there are still barriers to supporting oneself as an independent creator. She has found that people hesitate to invest in artists if they are unable to accept the inherent risks that come with creative experimentation.
Whether artists or not, Dorcas shows us how to slow down and live in balance with nature, even in the urban heart of Singapore. We can be kinder to ourselves and appreciate the diversity in our communities with the understanding that sustainability encompasses all aspects of life.
Following “The Three Hungry Microbes”, Dorcas’ next children’s book and solo author debut will be based on self-worth, belonging and the hidden power of kindness.
While Dorcas continues to tell stories with meaningful messages, she also inspires fellow ASEAN creators, communicators, and advocates to build connections and celebrate eco-art in their local communities.
Dorcas is hopeful that in the future, artists and activists will be appreciated for the life-affirming value they provide. She likened it to a society where people are empowered to contribute to a diverse forest ecosystem according to their strengths: “I am allowed to just be the mushroom and that is my role. And that’s okay. That’s enough.”
(Edited by Angela Tan)
Dorcas Tang is a Singapore-based artist, illustrator, and children’s book author who believes in the power of creativity in making eco-actions memorable and accessible. Dorcas focuses on capturing sustainability, biodiversity, and mental health topics in vibrant colors and storytelling suitable for a wide range of audiences. Follow along on Dorcas’ journey at https://earthtodorcas.com/ or https://www.instagram.com/earthtodorcas/. Readers in Singapore can also support Dorcas’ first book, “The Three Hungry Microbes,” at a library or bookstore near you.
Cookie is a graphic artist, illustrator, and animator from Bangkok, Thailand. Inspired by ecology and natural history, they use art to tell stories about Earth’s past and future. When they’re not drawing or writing, they enjoy trying new foods from different Southeast Asian cuisines.