Endangered Species Tile

Piece before firing

Piece After Firing

Project Goals:

-To become familiar with using endangered species as an art subject

-To learn directly from a working artist, Tim Christensen

-To become acquainted with basic ceramic vocabulary

-To form and etch a sgraffito clay tile

Artist Studied:

Tim Christensen

Reflection:

My tile illustrates the dependence of woodland caribou on forests for their food. By illustrating the various plants that are so important to them I hope I can make the viewer realize how important the forests are. It is not just the lichens on the tree or the shrubs on the ground, it is also the Huckleberry plants, birch trees, and sedges. I hope this piece can raise awareness of how susceptible woodland caribou are to the destruction of forests in their region. Raising awareness is extremely important, but monetary support is equally important. Therefore if this were a piece I was selling I would donate a portion of its profits to the protection of the woodland caribou. I have seen other artists do this who also use endangered species as their subjects, art is the tool in which awareness can be brought about. But a direct action like donating money is where the real change can be enacted.

I chose the woodland caribou because I think there is something magical about their dependence on their surroundings. They live in the Pacific region and are endangered in Washington and Idaho. Woodland caribou roam in remote mountain ranges and “hang out in lichen-filled boreal forests.” The forests they forage in can take up to 150 years to grow enough lichen for the caribou. This illustrates how important the forests are for these caribou, that is why they are so susceptible to their destruction. The cutting of old growth forests for timber, human settlement, the building of roads, and the northward expansion of a parasitic worm have made the woodland caribou endangered. There are also potential negative effects of climate change like change in seasonal temperatures and snowfall patterns, occurrence of wildfires, outbreaks of forest insects, and diseases. Hence what needs to change is that humans need to stop harvesting these forests for timber, building houses in these areas, and building roads. There should be reserves set up where the hunting of woodland caribou and harvesting of timber are illegal. Over time the caribou population will be able to recover.

The viewer would be able to know a great deal about the animal’s food sources and surroundings. They could probably infer the animal was a forager, by the number of plants around. Especially the stripe of leaves in the middle of the tile, additionally the shrubs on the foreground of the tile. Additionally the viewer could infer the caribou lives in a forest, by the pine treeline in the background, stripe of trees, and the smaller up close trees in the foreground of the tile. The snow can also tell the viewer that the caribou lives in a cold cimate.One thing that I could add is something about its location, how it is found in the Pacific region. I think it could be cool to incorporate the state outlines or something important about each state into the piece so the place is very clearly evident.

I think the etching and pattern were the most interesting and challenging parts to me. It's not that the etching was necessarily challenging, but that it required a lot of focus, patience, and thought. Each line had to be carefully thought out and in the beginning I always had to keep reminding myself I was carving out the black, exposing the white. But slowly and surely I got used to the etching and overall really enjoyed the process. It reminded me of carving linoleum, which I enjoy greatly. As for the patterns, I think it was important to correctly balance them and not make them look too busy. The planning and sketching helped a lot with the etching of the patterns and allowed them to look refined and individual.

I enjoyed having Tim around, it was nice to have a new perspective in class. He has never seen any of our previous work or gotten to know each of our styles so I enjoyed seeing his impressions of all of our work. Working with him definitely gave me a better understanding of what it is like to be a working artist who is constantly enraptured by his work. He gave great feedback and gave logical solutions to problems that arose during the creation of my tile. I will remember his stories the most, he kept us entertained all the time with stories about his life as an artist and how he got there.