Feeding Time was created as a commentary on the plastics in the ocean, and how sea creatures are consuming it as if it were a source of food. This work isn’t meant to “knock” plastics, but our stewardship of said plastics. Plastic is one of the greatest inventions known to man; it saves countless lives since its invention and enables other technologies and processes. Our wasteful nature as humans is the problem and this work speaks of that very issue. I started by creating a crab and placing it in the middle of the work to give it dominance and to intrigue the viewer from afar. Once the viewer gets closer, they can see that it is made out of the very things hanging/floating above it. The idea is that the crab is becoming what it has consumed, plastic. The coral is made of spray foam and represents the dying marine ecology, where the plastics absorb heat from the sun and retain its energy, increasing the ambient temperature of the water around it, killing the algae within the corral. My goal was to balance the whole structure so that you don’t see it when you are up close. All you see are the creatures that have become more plastic-like.  

Lastly, I created a place setting that represents what we actually consume when we eat seafood today. According to current scientific studies, microscopic plastic particles are in everything we fish out of the ocean. Bon Appetit!

Et Tu… and was designed to ask the question “Am I part of the solution or just part of the problem?” Given how much the world knows about carbon and its’ effect on climate change, are we doing enough to offset our individual and global carbon footprint? After long thought and working within the parameters of the assignment, I felt that an ornate sword piercing the Earth would make a graphic statement.

Dominant is the ornately gilded white sword; white being silent, like clouds or soft cotton, and the blade, a deadly snake that strikes to neutralize, then devour. Swords represent overt strength and have only one job; to kill. Carbon Dioxide, when in amounts too large to be absorbed quickly, causes asphyxiation and death. I chose a globe that was created in a bronze color, to help reflect the dirtiness the world has become. I chose dark, earthy colors to represent time immemorial, when the world was thought of as endless, new, and chaotic. Now, people know its dimensions, the highs and lows, its compositional make up etc. it is taken for granted and polluted.

I gave the blade tension by angling it, as if the weight of itself would shear the world in half. The blade is meant to be elegant, a visually enticing object that takes the mind away from its vicious action.

The Earth, being held up by hands from those that would consider it precious, is on a pedestal reminiscent of ancient times when concerns of global pollution and carbon dioxide was unheard of. Both sides of the blade have writing on them, one side says in Latin “Vincere Est Desperire”, translated to mean “Victory through Destruction”. This is the premise that humanity is conquering the world through innocuous means; single-use plastics, fertilization run-off, carbon emissions from automobiles, manufacturing plants, and cow farts, just to name a few. Our thoughtful ignorance has most assuredly killed us unless we change how we “see” and treat our garbage in the near future.

The other side, also in Latin, says “Et Tu…” to ask the question “Since you are also part of this, are you helping solve it?”