Energy and Place
Artist statement
My visual piece is meant to resemble the same thing I say in my essay, we need a balance of conservation and preservation. Through this art piece I show that the earth cannot withstand pure conservation and needs preservation. All the photos represent pristine areas that are best left unaffected by industrialization. The burnt edges represent the way we burn our resources and use them as nothing but fuel (gas, coal, biomatter) which leaves great land in ruins. The quote is directly from my essay. In order to assure it looked great I worked for around an hour looking through my images and compiling them in a way that looked presentable on its own. I made sure the colors were balanced and varied without looking incohesive. To get an acceptable burn around the edge I printed it many times (at least 4) until I got the burn exactly how I wanted it. By mounting it on a backing it went from crumpled paper to 3D art piece. This work was inspired by seeing land scared by conservation, whether it is a gas rig on blm land or forests being reshaped to produce lumber. I saw that conservation fails to promote land that will always remain as is and so it deteriorates all land. I was also influenced by the view out my back window being obscured, as I mention in my essay. |
Happiness and Meaning
Essential Questions:
a. What is the purpose of your existence? b. What is happiness and what makes you happy? c. What does it mean to live a meaningful life? d. To what extent can literature shape your personal philosophy on happiness and meaning? https://docs.google.com/a/animashighschool.com/file/d/0B5ktO3NLUDlcems1NU1kbjZudWM/edit)
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I'm not afraid of death I'm more afraid of not living.
-Scot Schmidt |
Through this happiness and meaning project I learned a few things about myself. I realize that happiness is something I feel the need to more actively pursue. I can pursue it by taking time to be with friends and waste less time on Netflix. I also learned that it is important to me to have a lot of excitement similar to the character in The Moth. The moth explained the importance of excitement over longevity and this is something I believe. This project showed me our existence has evolved from a state of simply surviving to an existence that allows us to focus on the greater things in life. And with this ability I choose to pursue excitement. I want to do things that allow deviation from routine and remove the monotony of a stable life. And now I feel the need to enjoy my life the best I can and with no greater meaning it is possible to simply enjoy living. Just like the moth tries to teach the roach I learned I must strive to be part of something brilliant and exciting.