The Unforgotten Natural Environment

Walking around campus and seeing litter all over, such as plastic bottles, candy wraps, and cigarette butts, I realize how people go on with their daily lives not even realizing that trash is very harmful to the natural environment. In observation, most people don't even care to pick up trash they see. They rather walk around it or over it, trying their best to avoid it. I am pretty sure everyone is guilty of doing that, including me, thus, sparked my main content for this project. 

Since plastic bottles are commonly used and wasted, I decided to use a regular plastic soda bottle to symbolize litter and society. How does it symbolize society? We, as a society, likes to bottle things up and throw them away, rather than taking care of them, such as the environment. We use the environment, don't take care of it, and forget about it. Basically, the natural environment is trapped in our hands, much like this tree is trapped in this bottle.

Furthermore, looking at these images, one cannot tell that the tree glows in the dark. I painted the tree with glow-in-the dark-paint, making it the focal point in the dark, to symbolize that though it appears lifeless, it is very much alive. In my eyes, I see that it resembles veins and arteries of a heart with the help if the negative space. So basically the glow-in-the-dark paint brings out implied lines that is created from the stem and branches. In addition, in the dark, the bottle gives the glowing tree a 3 dimensional form, making it dynamic. The glowing tree, with the repetition of the branches and leaves, it may seem chaotic, but offers some visual flow.

Everything was intentionally arranged. The soil fills up half of the bottle so that people would notice it, rather than just the tree because soil plays a major part in the natural environment just as much as trees do. The tree appears to be reaching for top, which communicates that it is suffocating and needs assistance. The lid of the bottle is on to trap the tree (environment) from its needs. 

After making this representational art, I gather people that I know and asked them to participate in a survey. I asked them various questions pertaining to the environment and my project. Each one had a chance to see the glow-in-the-dark tree and gave me their responses. Overall, from the surveys and other responses, the project was very successful in raising awareness of the environment. I did face some challenges along the way, but I was able to figure them out in a timely manner. This project taught me so much and I had fun.