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

*The systems present in this project are, the woods, dusk, burrows, berries, and rodents. I think the forest/woodland aspect of the piece is the most prominent. It's the main background and the rest of the patterns blend into it.

*I went with a warm color scheme. I used oranges, yellows, browns, reds, and yellow greens. These are all colors on the warm spectrum of the color wheel. I really do love how the colors turned out, especially the colors that were used for the sunset. If I were to do this again I would pay more attention to the patterns rather than the background.

*I chose the fox. The fox is important because it helps keep our ecosystem healthy. It hunts rodents, eats berries, and scavenges. All of these components help our ecosystem stay in balance. We can help foxes by leaving them alone and in the wild.