Hannah Watzel - 2023

Artist's Statement

When discussing the topics of this class with my roommate I was talking about how our systems we currently use are unsustainable, and I said our systems are failing. My roommate responded, "I wouldn't say we're failing. That sounds a little harsh." and I explained I didn't mean that we are failing as in a failing test score, but rather like a failing heart. It might still be limping along for now but if a change doesn't happen then it will lead to a collapse of the whole system. So for my project I depicted our earth as a heart, that is dying and losing its vibrancy. I chose the imagery of a heart because I think it stresses the urgency of the earth's situation. The earth is, in away, the heart of all life and if it fails there is not a way for us to go on without it. To get my intended message across, I painted the top part of the heart as branches and greenery, and the veins and arteries as roots and branches. But as you move farther down the heart becomes gray and blacked and the roots turn to cracks showing the crumbling systems that our society is built on, and how it is bleeding the earth of its vibrancy.