One Earth Project

The assignment for this project was to create a piece that provides a message or commentary on global warming and climate change. I used pen to draw an urban beach scene to represent the potential future of the arctic, with a danger sign and a polar bear skull in the foreground. I started by sketching in graphite, and then went over everything in colored pen. I chose to focus on the arctic because it is a region that is heavily influenced by global warming, and while many people know about the polar ice caps melting, we don't often think far beyond that. Though unrealistic, I thought that the idea of a balmy, commercialized, and polluted environment replacing the ice caps would be a powerful contrast, but also reminiscent of many areas that exist in reality. Color and space are the aspects that I focused on most in this piece. I gave the elements of the natural environment the most vibrant colors, and made sure that the buildings were nearly colorless, with the exceptions of the overly bright advertisements, beach chairs, and danger signs. To create a compelling sense of space, I had to be very precise in creating the curvature of the beach and the three dimensional perspective for the buildings.

For the composition of the piece, I put the polar bear skull in the front, framed by the danger sign. However, because it's in the bottom corner, it is not the focal point and appears almost as an afterthought, which I think is representational of the situation. The umbrellas and beach chairs compose the middle ground that transitions into the background, and the high horizon line is made of buildings. This project evolved in that initially I only had the polar bear skull to indicate the geographic setting. Because the meaning behind the skull is not obvious, I added the billboards that relate directly to the arctic. I think this clarifies the setting and solidifies the meaning in the skull.

I created this piece to represent the potential future of the arctic. While such developments are unrealistic, the comparison to modern costal developments is fairly obvious and the scene emphasizes the the extreme environmental effects of climate change, even if they are not to this degree. This project relates to my life in that I care about the environment and am concerned with the effects of climate change. For this reason, I recycle and compost at home to reduce waste that goes to landfills. I think this piece could be stronger is the foreground was more active. The center of the piece feels empty, and might look better if the skull was the focal point and the buildings were more of an addition in the background.