
Among the Darkness
Diamond Bar, California
2019, Senior, Art (2014 – 2023)

Reflection
Reflection
Heat waves intensifying. Droughts becoming more frequent. Hurricanes constantly beating coasts. Arctic ocean ice rapidly melting. Frequent wildfires blazing across landscapes. Sea levels rising at an unprecedented rate. And among all of this, we stand as the root cause of climate change yet the only hope. Currently, our environment is undergoing an event like never before. Humans and animals alike suffer due to the choices that humans have made, such as the many carbon emissions emitted into the atmosphere. I purposefully used the contrast in the background color and the person rising up to highlight the potential that we could bring upon our environment. The majority of the piece shows a chaotic scene representing the countless problems that we are currently facing with climate change. However, arising from this overwhelming catastrophe are us. By standing up to the situation, we are the only hope in solving this problem that we created, and only we are able to revert the damage that humans have made. While we can choose to blame the many causes, one should instead examine what we can do individually to make a change, and as writer Leo Tolstoy said, “everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” Although the situation at hand may look hopeless, there is still time to act, and I hope that this painting will raise awareness about this dilemma. Maybe one day posterity could view climate change as an event of the past, solved by those who made a change.