Advisor: Jason Paradis

My Senior Project explores climate change through a larger scale perspective. What if we had to move to Mars because we destroyed Earth? How would our perspective of nature change? Once we lose something, we tend to appreciate it even more. I believe that would happen with nature and our connection to it would get much deeper and intimate. It is true that we need nature and our environment physically to live, but it is also true that we need nature spiritually and emotionally to thrive. Strengthening your relationship with nature can improve your mental health and physical health. Edward O. Wilson had developed a hypothesis that humans have a desire to connect to nature. Biophilia is the intimate connection between humans and nature. I believe to truly be connected to nature, we have to become one with it. Humans and nature cannot coexist, but they have to become one entity.

These circle paintings come together to create an installation in conversation about climate change and life on a planet. The variety in sizes of discs represent different layers in a planet. Each planet’s layers are different in depth, temperature, and composition. I am exploring the habitable zone which is the range around a star within a planetary surface that can support liquid water. The variety in sizes of the circle paintings mimic the solar system and this has a conversation about climate change. When will Mars be in the habitable zone and what will nature look like there? What will the day look like when we can plant a tree on Mars? I’m influenced by the beautiful world around me and the abstract unknowns in the world. I like to explore the possibilities of life and the requirements for sustaining life on a planet. 

The shutdown due to the coronavirus strengthened my relationship to nature. I had so much more freetime to try new things which led me to spend all my freetime outside. Every morning, I ran outside which improved my mental health. Not only do I think that the physical exercise improved my mental health, but I think the fresh air and being outside bright and early also helped. During Covid, I had also gotten a puppy. She is truly the reason why I am so connected to nature today. I found the value in going outside multiple times a day to play with my dog and watch every squirrel that ran across the wire. I would wake up and take her outside to go to the bathroom right away and we would spend a good thirty minutes together watching the birds go by or playing with sticks. There’s something so complex about the simplicity of nature that I love.

My idea for these circular mobile paintings came about when I was thinking about how to convey my concept of bringing planetary and nature together. I was subconsciously thinking about the concept for two weeks and randomly when I was going about my day, I saw a moving circular mobile painting in my head.  I’ve always loved wood cutting and building things because of my dad. My dad has always worked on different projects in the house and backyard, whether it was a problem with the washing machine or he had to build his own shed. My dad has always been great with his hands and problem solving which is where I believe I get my desire to create.

The older I grew, the stronger my appreciation for nature grew. My high school art teacher made me fall in love with landscapes. Ms. Bazik’s art projects would always involve nature, whether it was a landscape or a bug or an animal. Ms. Bazik’s personal artwork are landscape paintings full of color and sensuality. Her appreciation and love for nature made me fall in love with nature and even more, it made me fall in love with painting landscapes. She taught me everything I know about painting and the landscape. I found out that I could express myself through landscapes in her class and that is why it felt so right creating landscapes. Nature and I became one. I have a passion for painting landscapes because of her and I will continue to paint landscapes while I fall deeper in love with nature.