Reflection

Our world is absolutely amazing, thousands of unique creatures inhabit the Earth today. Humans, however, have been slowly destroying the spectacular diversity seen in our oceans and elsewhere. Recently, having visited the Caribbean Islands, it was truly breathtaking to see the pristine and clean ocean waters. Sadly, some parts of the beach contained discarded scraps of plastic bottles and cans littered in the sand. Its tragic to think about having our entire oceans filled with plastic garbage. My inspiration draws from childhood memories filled with mesmerizing images of sea turtles true beauty. The painting submitted contains an array of oil paint colors thinly brushed to depict detail in the turtle’s shell. Cut outs of the rounded part of a water bottle encompassed the turtle’s shell and other plastic bits comprised its flippers. This depicts how plastic pollution would slowly engulf marine animals completely. I also incorporated miscellaneous plastic material throughout my piece. For the waves in the ocean I used a thin sheet of saran wrap, elevating and depressing some parts with glue to add texture. Crumpled up plastic bags were used for clouds and cut outs of small plastic bottles in the ocean were created from clear plastic cartons. Learning about plastic pollution will hopefully make more people aware of the detrimental effects not only to individual creatures, but to an entire ecosystem. Advocating for a clean world and expressing my thoughts through paintings has inspired me to think of new ways we can prevent plastic pollution.