Shyanne Wamsley - 2023

Artist's Statement

This semester I had the opportunity to go to Hawaii. I was able to see how our carbon footprint is impacting the coral around the island. The coral close to the shore looked like rocks and lacked a variety of wildlife. Ocean temperatures are increasing because of our carbon footprint. Many of us don’t realize how increased ocean temperatures impact the wildlife in the ocean, because we can’t often see it. I took a picture of what I saw to create an image depicting how coral reefs have changed due to the increase of our carbon footprint, which leads to our ocean temperatures rising. The image on the right shows a beautiful, healthy coral reef. The gradient between the two images depicts how the reefs have changed. The image on the right shows how our coral has turned lifeless. People often mistake it for rocks. In the background, you can see a person walking on the coral. Not only does our carbon footprint outside the ocean affect the coral, but our habits in the ocean do as well. The coral reefs full of vibrant color and wildlife are turning into bleached and dead coral and a lack of life. My motivation for this project is to show that our beautiful coral reefs are turning into dead environments due to our current way of life in hopes that people understand the impact our footprint is having in places we don’t often see.