Reflection

Hearing about ocean pollution and thinking about glistening waters suddenly being swallowed up by darkness is heart-wrenching. Personally, this horrible feeling resembles a villain’s assault against an angel. This imagery is what I sought to express through my watercolor painting. The masked face, refined with poster paints, represents the oil industry, with drills crowning its forehead. The mask symbolizes the inhumane perspective that oil companies possess. Underneath this facade is a crying face, which illustrates how pollution’s damage eventually comes around and hurts us too. Crude oil spills are pictured as the mask’s hair, flowing from a corrupted source and reaching towards a crying girl. She represents the ocean and its anguish, symbolizing the ocean’s innocence and fresh elegance. Between the two lie a coastal city, which is caught in the crossfire of pollution; meaning, ocean contamination hurts aquatic and human environments. Lastly, in the center, a little boy raises his arm up in defiance of the monster that aims to ruin the ocean. This symbolizes the hope, power, and need for the next generation to rise up and put an end to the injustice and destruction oil pollution has forced upon Earth’s oceans.