Royal River Watershed Species Tile

Project Goals:

• To use art in raising awareness of the flora & fauna located in the Royal River watershed

• To learn about artists who work with animals as their subjects, (specifically, working Maine ceramic artist, Tim Christensen, and wildlife artist and Maine Master Naturalist Michael Boardman);

• To become acquainted with basic ceramic vocabulary;

• To learn about and find inspiration in the highly patterned art (alebrijes) from Oaxaca, Mexico;

• To form and paint a low relief ceramic tile that contains both imagery of a flora or fauna species of your choice and an indication of the systems around it which promote that species’ survival.

Artist Studied: Artist and Art Culture Studied: Tim Christensen, Michael Boardman and Oaxacan alebrijes from Mexico

Reflections

I used this piece of art to communicate about the life of a white tailed deer and its relationship with nature. I decided to use meadows, the forest, a river, night and the eyes of a coyote, and finally the sun and the sky. I decided to include these because they seemed important in the life of a deer, and they represented how it interacted with nature. I used an analogous color scheme of green and yellow on my piece. To be brutally honest, I don't really like the colors on my piece, green and yellow are actually my least favorite colors. If I could do it over again, I would have chosen probably red or purple to paint my piece with. I also made my deers body slightly disproportionate to its head, which bothers me. I chose the White Tail Deer, and I chose it because in my backyard there are a lot of them that just poop up and eat my plants. I think even though they are slightly bothersome, it is important to keep them alive and healthy because they are considered what is called a keystone species. They are intrinsic to the environment and without them it would crumble. To help them we can make sure there are still many forests in our cities and make sure they can find food in the winter.