Pollution is killing the sea grass in the lagoon near where
I live. In addition to pollution, careless boaters speed through shallow water
further damaging the habitat that is so critical to life in this estuary. What
happens when all the grasses are gone?
As I considered this dilemma, my mind traveled down a
winding path arriving at what I call “Color Math”. Blue minus green equals
yellow. Written mathematically: Blue - (blue + yellow) = yellow. Hence the
yellow water surrounding my fish. In my imagined scenario, if all green sea grasses
were gone, the lagoon would be yellow.
And then the lagoon would become very hot. With no
protection from the sun or predators, the fish would die. “The Making of a
Fossil” depicts the decay and death of fish when their natural habitat is
disrupted or worse, destroyed. I used color, stitching and trapunto to
emphasize the deleterious effects.
The words preserve, protect and respect were foremost in my
mind as I considered what we could do to avoid such a negative future. These
words are superimposed on the area of decay as a reminder to our role in
prevention.
The fish prints are india ink Gyotaku, made by my husband
under the tutelage of Martha Wolfe. I discharged the fabrics, used triple,
double and single trapunto on the fish and added color with inktense pencils. The
words are handwritten with a fabric pen. Stitching includes cotton, polyester
and metallic threads.
Beautiful work, Lisa-Marie. I like the way you used math and color theory to illustrate your thoughts.This is a disturbing truth, but presented in a visually lovely way.
ReplyDeleteThank you Kate.
DeleteI haven't though of fossilisation in those terms Lisa- Marie, so thanks for opening my thinking. Great colour selection.
ReplyDeleteThank you Sue. I hadn't really thought of color math before now, but I liked the results!
DeleteLisa-Marie, I'm so thrilled to see what you've done with the prints. This is a wonderful way to illustrate a really serious environmental challenge there in the lagoon. I hope they can make some progress to correct some of the dumping issues soon.
ReplyDeleteOh Martha, thanks to you; you started the Gyotaku process!
DeleteYour work amaze me, Lisa-Marie! I like the way you combine "Color Math" and environmental issues. I agree with Sue, the color and the fish fossil are wonderful. Thank you for sharing this beautiful work with us!
ReplyDeleteHsin Chen, thank you for such an inspirational challenge and the opportunity to show our pieces in Taiwan.
DeleteI have to say, after seeing the body of work from this challenge, you ladies ROCK! Art needs to be about social commentary, and while all the pieces are beautiful, they touch down to the core of very difficult, disturbing issues facing our world today. Each work describes in a very meaningful way how our actions are changing, perhaps FOREVER, the world we live in. Thank you all, for this thoughtful, disturbing look at our collective "challenge"!
ReplyDeleteHi Andrea! Thanks so much for comments and observations. It is a challenge we are all faced with and making the issues accessible through art is important. We think it will make wonderful and effective exhibit in Taiwan, 2016.
DeleteAndrea, thank you so much for your insightful comments and support. It is humbling to think our art can educate and inspire.
DeleteI agree with all the preceding comments about the great visuals and color selections. You're talking about extinction here, but not just fish, our own as well. Very thought provoking.
ReplyDeleteThank you Vivien! I agree with you that the impact is on us as well. I don't think people typically consider this. Our actions have definite, far reaching consequences.
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