Sustained Investigation 1

Reflection

Night Sky and the Polar Bear is a piece about the beauty of our world, and what it means to destroy that. I am trying to show us all the colors, and patterns, and little details that make up planet earth. I want people to think about what it means to destroy this. Deforestation, Global Warming, Coral reefs dying, species going extinct at alarming rates, and human indifference are threatening our earth. Human indifference is the area that I see the most ability for growth in. We can choose whether or not to be indifferent to what is happening around us. And granted there are times when we can not take on anything else because life is already overwhelming. However, for those of us who can, we must, because the truth sits heavily on one set of shoulders when it is not seen by others. But when the heavy weight of the truth is shared, it can unite into action instead of fall into painful inaction and indifference. I wish for other people to make the conscious decision to see the truth about climate change, and how beautiful our planet is, when cared for.

This piece was made entirely on a piece of scrap cardboard. This wouldn't have been my first choice of medium, but because it already had this shiny spilled India ink stain on it, I wanted to use it. I also liked the brown base color. Besides the cardboard, I used metallic Sharpies (gold and silver) as well as watercolor markers (and water).

For this project, I had many ideas, but as has happened often, I felt unsure how I could make those ideas a reality. So I waited and tried to come up with a project that I felt I had the skills for and the inspiration for, but I couldn't make anything. However, I was taken by the shiny spilled India ink on the cardboard, and how beautifully it portrayed these storm clouds/river current. My process also heavily relied upon my watching of nature documentaries, which inspired the way this piece turned out. Everything from the color, to the patterns, to the shape is inspired by the natural world.