Reflection

Reflection

This watercolor painting depicts the evident contrast between what seems to be the ocean’s surface, which we idealize, and the disturbing reality below. Above the surface, the marine creatures are gleeful and free, roaming about. Meanwhile, animals deep down are bound by fishing nets and trash, restricting their movement. The man made tea cups represent human activity. The loss of color and beauty in each teacup moving below represents people ruining the ocean, as also shown where the water flowing from the cups turns polluted. Many jellyfish are shown in the painting. This was to highlight how the sea's temperature is rising. The dead, colorless coral serves as a disturbing reminder of the marine environment impacted solely by humans. The bleaching of coral is mainly caused by pollution, most commonly from oil, sunscreen, plastic, etc. To visually represent this, I reused plastic, the very cause of their ruin. The net and plastic wraps are also made of plastic. This painting was made as a call to action to protect and save our oceans. I was inspired by the devastating facts I learned about ocean pollution from documentaries. A statistic that stood out to me stated that plastic will outweigh all fish in the sea by 2050 if the ongoing circumstances don’t change.