Teresa Hansen - 2022

Which Dragon?

Intro to Anthropocene as a college course has been very eye opening to a third generation coal miner's daughter. I like many of my family and community members have a misconception of what the foundations of green or planet life is. The current push to “go green" and find natural power are just small prices to a much larger, much more complex piece of the problem. Learning the butterfly effects of the earth’s delicate, yet very efficient ecosystem help put into context the black and white need for action. We are consuming more than our earth can replace. This seems simple, yet it has been portrayed as hard and technical. This is an issue that affects everyone at the bottom line, so everyone needs to be educated. I chose to draw the earth under the control of a two headed dragon. Dragons being mythical creatures that contain power with mighty control represent humanity's power of change -- and growth for me. Feeding the dragon feeds our conception of Earth’s path. One dragon has a mouth full of flowers, for a natural, peaceful move. The other dragon has a mouth full of money, feeding greed and shallow needs. Pulling back the curtain is to show we have to see what is really running this show on Earth. It’s not people, but the choices we make that feed the dragon that can either nurture or destroy our planet.