Final Art Work
Unit 2 Reflection:
As I mentioned in Unit #1 reflection it is easier for me to create conceptually to conceive an art piece in response to a prompt than starting from nothing. When the choice is limitless there is too much to choose from and I am lost as to where to begin. When given a prompt or guideline I have something to work from and a place to bounce off of.
Tasked with completing a series of drawings that is both related to me and my
developing practice while at the same time being challenging and engaging for the
viewer. I set out to provide a positive yet thought-provoking experience for the viewer to engage with, in my work. I feel I failed at this with my first attempt. The images I created I think were immature, and juvenile. However, after thinking about them I realize that they did fit the parameters of the assignment.
What do I want to see in the world?
My subject is the environment, climate change, and the Old Growth Forests of B.C. I intended to continue the conversation around species extinction, and environmental damage and provoke dialogue for solutions and prompt action. For this assignment, I continued to work with the natural environment as my subject matter.
I worked primarily with paper in various forms and concoctions. I used earth tones, greens, browns, reds, oranges some yellows, and purples. Though I primarily stay away from these colours the yellows and purples I did end up adding them to my final images.
Most of my ideas are grand installations that require viewer participation and would involve a team of people to pull them off. As I do not have the funding to purchase material, rigging, and hire people, not have the time to work on large installations I worked on paper. I really struggled with this as I kept envisioning three-dimensional pieces. Puzzle drawings; a book; Strands of mycorrhizal fungal network hanging and looping from the ceiling, requiring the viewer to walk through; tree trunks with moss and lichen, allowing the viewer to touch and connect with the texture; so many ideas that I felt were too large for this assignment. Yet, I wanted to provide an engaging positive yet thought-provoking experience for the viewer.
I did enjoy the process and gained confidence in my creative abilities whilst working through any tricky situation that arose. Throughout my exploration, I also did learn more about the important role Old Growth Forests play in healthy ecosystems globally. From this, I focussed my final pieces on the connection and conversation Mother Trees establish with a network of mycorrhizal root systems beneath the forest floor. The crucial conversations carried out that sustain and nurture life in all ecosystems.
Plant intelligence is real. Like all species, plants form communities where they communicate, cooperate and compete. However, scientists have found that the trees the old growth furs, and cedars have evolved and survived through cooperation and not competition. Survival of the fittest for forests means cooperation and assisting other species to thrive. The tress does notice our presence and quite possibly understands our interactions with them. They respond to our actions in countless ways. Perhaps the most profound way that these old-growth trees communicate to with the forest, ecologists have found, is through the mycorrhizal fungal root network.
We have taken notice of our negative impact on the natural environment only because we are finally aware that our behavior also negatively affects our survival. The trees speak for and with the environment and it is time we learn from their way of communication. Cooperation is as central as competition to evolution. As we mature, and evolve as a species so too must our way of being. Capitalism is an economic theory that I believe is near its end. We are on the verge of change. Forming ourselves beyond capitalist greed that exploits resources and destroys the world. I am excited for the future generations and their growth into maturity and for recognizing the cooperative coexistence of a new economic paradigm. An economic model where Ecology not economy is the driving force of society.
Though the final three pieces are not 3D in design I am pleased with them.