Final Reflection

Abstract

Judy Tallwing, author of White Spirit Bears, changed my thought process when it came to using reclaimed materials to create images of social justice. (News from the visionary!) Tallwing used resin, silver, garnet, sterling, acrylic, copper, and diamonds in her painting of the White Spirit Bears. White Spirit bears are actually a species of the American Black Bear that live in British Columbia, Canada; every 9 cubs there is a white " spirit bear " born. (Icon for an Endangered Ecosystem) An oil company wanted to put the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline next to the Great Bear Rainforest. With there only being approximately 400-1000 spirit bears and the oil company's reputation for oil spills could potentially make these bears extinct. The American Visionary Arts Museum created the Army of Poets campaign to protest the pipeline being installed, thanks to the poem of quotes the pipeline will not be placed in this location. The first piece I made this week is a crayon sign that says 15 million American children go without necessary school supplies. I am working towards my concentration of elementary education and hope that I can keep this until I have my own classroom so my students and parents can see that they are not alone and that many other families have trouble buying their children the supplies they need for school each year. This is a topic that is over looked by many Americans every year as we send our school supplies to other countries in need but never think about our own neighbors that may not be as well off as us. Almost all public school teachers spend their own money to purchase school supplies for students in their class that can not afford to buy their own materials. I had gotten the idea for this piece from my sister's art project where she melted crayons vertically; however this project took a spin on the basic idea of melting crayons. When I made this piece I painted it and melted crayons on the top. This was a harder challenge than I expected as the crayons wanted to fly away so I ended up gluing the crayons to the boarder in order to melt them. When the crayons where staying in place and melting, I realized they were not melting the way I had planned. However, now that I reflect on the project I really like the …