Reflection

Bangladesh seems to frequently contradict itself when it comes to its problems of climate change. Whenever I visit I'm struck by the high temperatures, dryness, and terrible air quality, but near the water, it experiences flooding and high sea levels. What I wanted to capture more than anything was the impact of poor environmental quality on the people of Bangladesh. Given that I was inspired by how the rising of waters can destroy infrastructure and homes, displacing thousands, I thought it prudent to make a watercolor piece. Initially, I struggled a lot with angles and poses that would capture an emotion of "quiet grief", but I believe the false tranquility of the waters surrounding my subject and how they've risen to swallow her, and the bitter dialogue of having lost a sense of security, best captured my overall message. Creating this piece really made me aware that every person and every place's relationship with climate change is different. While to more privileged people such as me, the problems of climate change could be ignorable or easily dismissed as beyond us/too late to be fixed, some people are suffering in the present because of past inaction. If we're so quick to push our problems to future generations, these problems will genuinely never be fixed. Climate change isn't only an issue in Bangladesh, but it can be devastating in a place where there are already limited resources. I don't want to ignore the tragedies of my parent's home country--I want to draw attention to them and be more involved in fixing them and contributing to solutions.