Artist Statement

Deteriorate, oil on canvas, 2014

This piece is of a globe on fire while sitting on a pile of garbage.  The purpose of this piece is to highlight the damage that is being done to our planet.  I used oil paint on canvas because of the long drying time.  This gave me the flexibility to create smooth gradients in the flames.  If I used acrylic paint, the paint would’ve dried too quickly, prohibiting me from evenly layering the paint to create that gradient.  There is a contrast between the orange-red flames and the globe in order to show tension.  I wanted the warm tones of the fire to clash with the cool tones of the globe.  For the pile of garbage, I used a stippling motion to create sfumato. Sfumato is Leonardo da Vinci’s technique where harsh lines are blurred together.  I used a stippling motion in order to create semi-irregular shapes to make a bit more realistic.  Rather than creating distinct pieces of garbage, I wanted to blur together colors like brown, red, yellow, and green in order to create an unpleasant mix match of color.  At the top of the pile of garbage where the pile meets the globe, I purpose blurred out that harsh edge.  I used sfumato here in order to show some type of fusion between the two, almost as if they’re joining together into one object.  This is to demonstrate how garbage is consuming the world.  I chose black for the background to indicate that the world is sitting in darkness and something needs to be done about that.  I chose this subject matter because this course has made me realize the severity of global warming.  Before this course, I knew of it but I didn’t know the true damage it could do. The true turning point for me was doing my presentation on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.  It broke my heart to see those animals with garbage in their bodies and to see our world being destroyed by our waste.  I chose this subject matter because I feel that more attention needs to be drawn to this cause.