Reflection

Reflection

This piece was completed using the pointillism drawing technique, and was inspired by both the antiquated scientific drawings of Ernst Haeckel and undersea statue exhibits like the Molinere Underwater Sculpture Park. This work was also observational, in the sense that I used my own sketches of statues from the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a reference for a statue to draw, such as the Ancient Greek "Head of a Youth" sculpture fragment. Through this piece, I was initially trying to exhibit the idea that the depletion of coral reefs, if unchecked, will soon turn them into nothing more than the drawings left in scientific journals, in the same way that all that's left of ancient societies is often the works of art that they leave behind. While exploring and researching for this idea, I was definitely profoundly struck by just how irreversible the human mark is on our ocean's ecosystems as a whole; when you look at underwater statue exhibits like the Molinere Sculpture Park, it can feel as if the exhibit is indicative of humanity's constant negative presence, which was easily reinforced by all of the other research that I had to complete on the current state of our coral reef ecosystems. On the other hand, however, the fact that such exhibits are so quickly completely overrun with new life and organisms is also, to me, indicative of nature's ability to bounce back, when given the chance. Through that, I think I found a way that my piece cannot only warn others about the future that lies before us, but also hope about what could happen should we choose to change our course.