Advanced Life Drawing : Return to Nature

The second drawing project is meant to focus on a social or political issue that speaks to us. It is also to include text. One issue that particularly stands out to me is deforestation, an issue that I believe is not only ecological and economical but also has both social and political ramifications. In order for my project to confront the idea of deforestation I drew a forest with fully-grown trees as well as chopped down trees; but instead of simply drawing a realistic forest with fully grown trees and tree stumps, I decided to create a forest that was filled with fantastical life. I drew the trees so that they resembled fanciful, almost balletic human forms because I wanted to show the life and beauty within the trees that the people who are destroying them do not see. By forming these trees into human shapes I thought the viewer would feel more connected to them and could more readily relate to their beauty and the life within the trees. Amidst the whimsical forms which I have given the trees I have juxtaposed the stumps of others. Compared to the dancing trees the stumps are devoid of life and are meant to evoke a sense of empathy and sorrow for those spirited trees whose lives were destroyed. Color is another aspect I wanted to use in this project in order to create an energetic forest that is being decimated. I used blues, oranges, greens, and reds in this piece in order to portray the colors of the forest rather than just using the usual browns and greens. My influence in my color choices was the impressionist movement, specifically Monet. Monet’s use of color was incredible due to the fact that he tended to use color rather than tints and tones when creating his paintings. For instance, he avoided black when shading a piece in order to create a more fully dimensional, more life-like piece of art. Also, for instance, when he painted something that was meant to be the color purple he didn’t just paint the object purple, he included blues and reds and other colors. The final aspect of my piece is the text. The text that I decided to include is a quote by Jane Goodall, “You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” I used this quote, repeating it over and over, to create the forest floor. The quote is written around the trees and tree stumps and is meant to make a statement about how even though people talk about fixing things and making changes nothing really changes. Even as the words about change are being spoken and repeated over and over, the trees continue to be cut down and the forests destroyed.