Endangered Species Clay Bowl

Purpose:

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

• To learn about photographer, Joel Satore and painter, Anne London, as well as the highly patterned art (alebrijes) from Oaxaca, Mexico

• To become acquainted with basic ceramic vocabulary

• To form and paint a ceramic animal bowl that contains both imagery of an endangered or threatened species of your choice and indication of the systems around it which promote that animal’s survival.

One way that I am helping respond to the essential question is I chose an animal that needs help as much as any other. By choosing this animal I am bringing awareness to the fact that the black-footed ferret needs help to be preserved. I hope when people see my bowl they will see that the black-footed ferret needs to gather food easier. People will see this because I purposefully didn’t add an image of the food in the background. I hope people will also see that it is just a small animal and it needs our help.

I chose the black-footed ferret for my endangered animal. I chose it because I have seen one before and I felt a connection to it. It is found in Wyoming, South Dakota, Montana, and Arizona. It lives in tall grass areas. It is endangered because it has experienced a loss of habitat and prey. I used a pattern in the grass to show where the ferret gathers food and I also put a hole in the ground to show that it feeds on prairie dogs.