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I was reflecting on modern day artists who create work about climate change. Jill Pelto has always stood out to me because she is both an artist and a scientist. Her work always includes some type of mathematical or graphing element. I wanted to create something in her style, so I thought about an environmental problem which directly affects me. Drought. I live in the Las Vegas desert and as Lake Mead and the Colorado River's water levels drop at increasing rates, scientists worry about what will happen to cities like Las Vegas. I started by drawing the water meter, as a reference to Jill Peltos work. Then I used guache to fill it in. For the colorful part of the water towards the bottom of the piece I used water color pencil and for the background water I used watercolor pens.

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I had a discussion with Mr. Calhoun, who teaches AP Environmental Science. He told me that the U.S. is the largest exporter and importer of gas and oil, making it by nature a petrostate. I wanted to demonstrate this modern problem that effects the environment by using a historical reference to the Uncle Sam Political Cartoon. I began with a watercolor wash to make the paper seem old. Then I used a technique to transfer the letters and began sketching the composition. Once I had the letters done and the sketch of Uncle Sam ready, I actually used makeup to create the contours on Uncle Sam's face. I also used watercolor pencils and acrylic paint.

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When watching Don't Look Up over spring break I began to revel at the beautiful job the movie does at illustrating the impending doom that is climate change. After speaking to Mr. Calhoun and gaining a greater understanding of the matter, I began changing the way I thought about climate change. I'm currently reading All We Can Save in English, which is a great compilation of many poems and essays about climate change. All of this information, I brought with me to art class. I remembered a local artistic group- Recycled Propaganda and a piece by Zachary Marc Knudson I saw in Florida. From my viewership of Z.M.K.'s piece I took with me the sentiment that there's always an immediate solution available to a big problem... it's just out of reach. His structure, "In Case of Broke-ness," is a rather satirical demonstration of this. In the Recycled Propaganda Print and in Don't Look Up, the concept of leaving our dying planet for another was brought forward. I combined compositional elements from both these pieces when creating my sketch, using the fire extinguisher theme and the rocket motif. I had previously explored shading with pastel dust and brushes in Not For Sale and I wanted to take that technical exploration further by using only pastel dust in my piece. As I continued working I thought about how the dust is almost representative of the effects of climate change, in the same way that the idea of leaving this planet for another would be brought about by those very effects. I wish that I had began shading in blue instead of only using black to begin with. I also wish that I had used some form of stenciling or tracing for the letters, for they may have looked better. Overall I think the message of the piece comes across and I'm excited to wrap up the year and continue creating!

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*UNOFFICIAL PHOTO

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In the development of this piece, I reflected on some prior artwork I had made. I didn't want this one to blend in with the rest of my sustained investigation. I also remembered a piece I made last year, I made it in my dorm room with some paint that my friend had brought to my room. So with those ideas in mind, I began to work on the parrot. After getting to see the parrot fully done, I thought about how exotic animals like big cats and rare birds are traded in to be pets. They often don't live long in captivity and life in a cage doesn't compare to life in their natural habitats. So in keeping with making this piece bold. I cut out big red letters from an old folder I had and pasted them onto the parrot. I did some research prior to making the letters, for artists who created similar works and Donna Kerwin's Don't Buy Ivory campaign definitely fit the bill. At first I thought of doing similar lettering and gave it a try, I found that the multi-colored background of the parrot made small letters blend in and almost made the composition confusing to look at. I chose a different font and went for it. Looking back I wish I had more paper so that I could've made multiple attempts at creating the letters. I found that my "E" could've been better and the "S" was very hard to do with one try. Overall I am super happy with this piece, it's one of my favorites so far, I like how modern it is and how many colors are in it. It also is a very modern approach to my sustained investigation in comparison to more historical artists I've referenced.

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This was my first piece I made for my sustained investigation. I really enjoyed working with stamps to create ink drawings and I wanted to give that media another go. During our exploration into stamping, I watched one of my classmates create a beautiful piece of a woman out of a hand-print stamp. For this piece I wanted to use that same stamp to create a photo of an animal. I chose the elephant because it is an endagered species and humans have been largely responsible for their diminishing numbers. I think that this piece can be viewed and understood in many ways. Not only does it describe the relationship between humans and our dying enviorment- that we leave our dangerous fingerprints all over earth's wonders, but it can also be interpreted as a call to action. The elephant in this composition is comprised of all human hands in order to signify that if we are going to give back to the earth, we all must come together to do so.

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When oil sticks to a bird’s feathers, it causes them to mat and separate, impairing waterproofing and exposing the animal’s sensitive skin to extremes in temper

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IDEA DEVELOPMENT

Recently a girl in my grade bought a fish, which made me think back to when my mom and I were picking fish for our tank at home. The glaring thought of rows of fish in plastic bags ready to be bought and sold was impossible not to include in my investigation.

RESEARCH

While I've researched that keeping a fish in a plastic bag isn't harmful to it, I began to ponder why we put fish in plastic bags and if they necessarily belong there. The process goes something like this, the fish are bred and live in a tank until they are purchased to live in another tank. It's a somewhat pitiful lifestyle for fish that come from a species which could populate coral reefs and greater parts of the ocean.

REFLECTION (written documentation of process)

I really liked working with watercolor in my last piece, and granted that I was painting water I decided to roll with it. The watercolor wash worked really well to paint the plastic bag and then another smaller one worked to emphasize the water. Originally I was just going to paint a goldfish, but as I thought about my concept more, I wanted to showcase a fish that people would associate with the ocean and not a tank, so I chose a Caribbean lion fish. I had to go back in with white acrylic paint to make all of the fine lines in the fish more apparent. Then Mr. Abreu comes to class one day with a new set of water color pencils and I couldn't resist using a lot of vibrant colors to emphasize the fish, the water, and the outsides of the bag. When I was finished with the bag and everything inside of it, the background was blank and the piece looked flat. I went back in and created a watercolor wash around it using multiple watercolor pencils to contrast the blue of the bag and bring the bag forward in the composition.

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I was able to create the shapes by appropriating the actual photos of the objects I used in the

drawing. Such as these:

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Reflection: I really like this piece, I want to add more water droplets in the future and maybe create more concentric ripples, especially if I use this for my final.

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IDEA DEVELOPMENT

Utagawa Hiroshige (36 Views of Mount Fugi)

As I researched my sustained investigation, I found Utagawa Hiroshige. His works largely involve scenes of nature and I kept him in mind to create my work.

RESEARCH

In an article I read by Xun Zhou, I found that deforestation can increase air pollution. While the two seemed unrelated at first, the process of taking in carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen in plants is highly important to reducing air pollution. Meanwhile 15 Billion trees are cut down every year. Making this piece I also thought of The Silent Spring by Rachel Carson.

REFLECTION (written documentation of process)
Similar to my last piece, I wanted to represent a man-made change to the environment. I realized that I had depicted the creation of smog through factories, etc. in my last piece, but I was eager to show how deforestation can worsen air pollution. I did so by including chopped trees and heavy smoke by the city. The birds are flying away (a small nod to Silent Spring). The most important part of this piece was the people. I wanted everyone to be walking towards the smoke-blanketed city, except for one. He is the viewer, who is taking a moment to observe. In his observation he becomes more curious about nature and pauses his approach to the city.

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I later decided that the red would be an interesting color pop to the otherwise black and white drawing.

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I still am not confident in the eyes or the hands but compositionally I am happy with the drawing. I feel like the message I wanted to come across does in fact do so.

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IDEA DEVELOPMENT

Cow's Skull Red, White , Blue (1931)
Georgia O' Keefe East River #1

I really loved these two pieces I found in a book of Georgia O' Keefe's work. I flipped through many of her designs to select works that would benefit my Sustained Investigation.

RESEARCH

The U.S. National Wildlife Refuge System, reports that, "Air pollutants can harm ecological resources, including water quality, soils, plants and animals. Ozone, for example, causes foliar injury and reduced growth in some sensitive plant species as shown in the picture below. Atmospheric deposition of sulfur and nitrogen compounds can cause significant ecosystem effects such as acidification, eutrophication, and changes in soil and water chemistry. Acidification of soils, lakes and streams can result in changes in community structure, biodiversity, reproduction, and decomposition." Smog can have serious affects on our environment, yet everyday we take part in small actions that contribute to the large amounts of pollutants our communities produce.

REFLECTION (written documentation of process)
While doing research for my Sustained Investigation, I remembered back to books I had during my childhood of Georgia O' Keefe's biography. While the reading sounds dense, it was presented in a manner that really appealed to me as a child growing up in the South West region. I found a book in the library documenting all of her work and began to flip through it. In doing so, I read about her experience in the South West and how she experienced a drought and later came across many bleached bones. I felt like her experience is one that signals the effects of an unhealthy climate, the affects of Smog can pollute water systems and create an uncomfortable environment for wildlife. I began to sketch the bleached skull on top of what was a sketch of one of her East River paintings. I also thought the color choices matched really well. I had planned on using only water-color as she did for many of her paintings, but in order to layer the background of the East River Painting I had to experiment with using acrylic paint. The skull and silhouettes are entirely watercolor.

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Poaching increases due to Covid 19 and decreased tourism

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Poaching increases due to Covid 19 and decreased tourism

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During my research, for my sustained investigation, shining light on the negative ways humans interact with nature, I stumbled upon this article. I had previously learned about poaching, and how animal conservation efforts actually encourage tourists to go hunting. Tourists pay a fee and to hunt on their grounds and the funds go towards protecting the animals from inhumane treatment from poachers. All in all poaching, or legal hunting, humans are consistently promising animals in monetary transactions, treating them as property. I wanted to highlight that in my piece

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Composition wise I wanted to mimic the shaking of hands to the Zebras crossing heads. At first I was going to do a singular face.