GD Polyptych

A picture is posted in my portfolio that goes with this blog post, but I want to elaborate on the specific details about my work here.

The concept behind my piece is the presenting of many beautiful creatures in the sea and lakes and having their habitats infested with trash. Trash that came from humans. I wanted it to push viewers to see what the world doesn't want them to see. I want viewers to acknowledge the harsh environments animals are suffering in due to human activity and littering. It is a serious ordeal going on in our world today, yet not a lot of people talk about it. I hope that this art piece pushes other people to understand and take action against littering, and against the destroying of the earth we live on. And the truth is, this is the world we share with so many diverse creatures. We live alongside these animals. We should not hurt them in any way.

I think that the disgusting trash here communicates the need to protect our animals and the need to protect our world. I took some public domain photos of animals and trash, cropped them, adjusted their shadows and highlights, as well as played around with their saturation and hues. I chose some unrealistic/sickly colors for their habitats to make people associate the trash with the animals' disgusting habitats. For the top picture, I chose a bright orange that I associate with an industrial or factory feel. It almost as if there is fire in the distance that is destroying their habitat. This sort of orange is also associated with crassness, or stupidity and insensitivity.

For the second picture, I chose some more greenish-blues that really illustrate the sickly style. Greenish colors are often associated with growth or the need to grow in some way. In this way, it means that there is lots of room for humans to grow in their understanding of nature and their effects on the government.

For the third and final photo, I chose very dark blues, almost black colors. This color can be associated with death and darkness, symbolizing the dark times we are in to be harming our environment in such ways.

As you can see, there is a whole lot of symbolism and purposeful use of color in my piece. It all means something to help portray the deeper message: We as a human race need to take action to protect what we love most, and preserve them for future generations.