Month: October 2019

Green is a colour seen throughout nature. On the leaves of trees, on the grass below, on the crystals underground, and on our minds and wallets. Deforestation has greatly affected the world around us. Species being thrown out of homes in place for ours. We, humans, have kicked out so many animals out of their homes without remorse and when it happens to us, we are lost and incapable. We have kicked nature out and through global warming, nature is kicking us out.

The Rainforest Restoration Project has stimulated the climate change activist within me. Whenever I hear remarks about climate change and its authenticity, I lose hope in the world. People can look but they don’t see. They don’t observe the world around them and make inferences, they don’t believe anything but themselves. Rainforest Restoration has helped give back to the world that has given me so much. It has given me itself to live in, its own being to consume and its life to live. We have been but pawns in the world around us, but the pawns are winning this chess match by murdering their own queen.

Trees have been a fundamental part of our ecosystem and life, without them half of our existence as we know it would not exist. They are intertwined with our being. It was always a joy working with trees. They are such intricate creatures, sturdy and resilient. Our greed for resources has forced these selfless peacefull beings out of existence. The world today begs me to ask a simple question: How many people does it take to destroy a planet? My guess: only one

Each image we take is a snapshot of a memory. A portrait can tell a life story, one that is filled with seconds of vividity. We can look back to the pictures we have taken and wonder how much we have given away. The Memory Project helped me to understand that.

The Memory Project not only helped me regain my passion for painting but for life as well. The main goal of the project is preserving the children’s stories in paintings of their portraits to hopefully bring about a better world. Reducing one’s life story into brushes of paint is hard. Not only to gain resemblance to the subject but to convey meaning in it as well. Conveying the heartfelt meaning in their memory is a challenge I might never be able to achieve but I hope to retain the same childhood experience everyone has had. The Memory Project is a testament, that through art, through the still frame of a camera, people are remembered and never forgotten.

We must always put ourselves in challenging positions to further our education and our own limits. I have done so with an incredible leap. It was with the help of a washing machine. Although I have placed myself in a spot where it may have been incredibly ridiculous, this ridiculous choice has helped me learn that it truly is impactful. In History Society, we debated on the most significant event of the 20th Century and I chose the invention of the electric washing machine. I was to argue how this almost ordinary boxed contraption changed the way the world worked. I sort of did.

The washing machine was incredibly significant. Although I do not want this reflection to turn into a reactionary retelling of what I have presented but it opened my eyes to how we can change the world. The people who invented the electric washing machine did not intend for the world as we know it to change. Their invention contributed to the rise in advanced technology readily available in our homes, women’s rights, and the effects of advertising and consumerism. I could go in-depth on how it did, but I shall save it for another time. My point is, who would have thought of its extreme influence in the world as we know it. We can create change by revolutionising the world around us for the better. The small electrification of an already common appliance helped shift our mind into a state of wonder and mindless convenience. Changing the world isn’t easy, but if we can do simple but meaningful changes to the world around us, there may be incredibly influential changes along the timeline of our lives.

Here is a link to my video:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1T6Au2LvnXWmhuMiRWp_lH3o8lvwcz50u