The Scarecrow

For this art project I had an idea to portray trash as “evil” and why not do that with making trash a supervillain in the DC’s comic Batman. My art project is scarecrow himself. I came up with the idea because I was watching Chris Nolan’s action-packed trilogy Batman, and a grand idea came to me to make the mask and gauntlet of the scarecrow. The idea came to me because of one main reason; I found the perfect burlap sack lying on the ground someone left for me to use.

            The materials I used for this project were very common to find on the street. The main component of my art project is several pieces of plastic. Plastic is honestly everywhere and people use it everywhere. In both my two pieces of plastic you can find plastic. For example, in the gauntlet shown the main body is made of a two-liter plastic bottle and on the outside are more 16-ounce water bottles around it. On the mask, you can easily find that the respirator is made of two plastic laundry tops.

            Okay, so let us get started with the building process. First, I took the burlap sack and cut it into pieces so it can have a definitive shape to it. I cut the mask into four sections: the front, two sides, and the top of the head. I then cut two identical holes and one large oval shaped hole to mimic two eyeballs and a mouth. After that, I took the excess of the burlap, cut two pieces out, colored it black, and placed them behind the eyeholes so people cannot see the person wearing the mask. I then took more of the excess and added texture to the mask so that it did not look flat. Finally, I added the last component to this mask. I painted the respirators gray and hot glued them to the sides of the mask.

For the gauntlet section of this project, I cut a two-liter soda bottle in half and rolled it to make it appear smaller. After that, I used duct tape I found lying around in my house and used a healthy amount of tape to cover it up. I then cut a styrofoam cup and put more duct tape around it to make a gray ring. After that, I slipped it on the foundation of the gauntlet to add texture. I also found some pieces of metal in my house and made them a nice addition to my gauntlet I then got three water bottles cut them in half as well and rolled them up to make tubes. After I assembled the gauntlet I spray painted the whole thing gray.

And there you have it! Two key components of the supervillain Scarecrow from the DC comics Batman. A supervillain to portray that trash is the route of all-evil. I honestly had a blast making this art project. It allowed me to have fun and get really creative with this project. Without the burlap sack, I found on the ground I would not be able to create this supervillain. Thank you to whoever left this on the ground. I would not have done it without you!

The Plastic Flowers

The art project that I created by using trash that I collected during the beach cleanup is called “Plastic Flowers”, and it was all made by plastic bottles. Plastic bottles were included in this art project, not only because this is something we picked up during beach cleanups, but also because this is the item that we use and throw away everyday. Plastic bottles are the representative of trash, because the 90 percent of the water and soda that we drink everyday are assembled by plastic bottles. At the same time, many of us do not have the sense of keeping the plastic bottles up for sale or to throw it into recycle bins after we finished with them. In this case, plastic bottles become one of the many trash that go into the ocean and ruin our environments. The message that I am trying to encode is that we can always turn something we consider as trash into artistic form of things with a little decoration and time. My audiences are residents of Los Angeles, because we live in the same environments. The intended effect is to inspire them to care more about the environments by first envisage the problem of trash.

Trash can appear very easily, and it always depends on our actions. As part of nature, we have the responsibility to help on solving this problem by changing our attitude. First, we can start by utilizing wasted materials. To keep in mind, trash can always be turn into something usable or just for decoration. This little step doesn’t only help on decreasing the number of trash, but also provides an opportunity for us to do something inspiration and fun after hours of hard works.

Focused Perspective- Car Freshener Art Project

In my art piece, I took a series of photos to with what I consider nature and a trash that I 

found at Debs Park. The piece of trash that I found was a Car air Freshener. While at the community

engagement at Debs Park Audubon Center, our group began to clean up trash that was found amongst

 the trail. While on the roof of the building I work at in Pasadena I took a series of photos of the

 mountains and Central Park on 275 S. Raymond Ave, Pasadena, CA 91105. While there was many

 pieces of trash to choose from, I choose the car freshener because of its shape and purpose. Its funny

 and ironic, not only due to its shape like a tree but also because a car freshener makes the interior of

 a car smell good yet doesn’t fix the problem. In the same way, in nature when people create 

pollution, instead of fixing the problem or changing their actions, they try to find ways to mask and “freshen” the effects. The photo also uses the focus of the camera lens to emphasis the meaning as well. When we litter and pollute the earth, we just see the close up picture of it and don’t see the big picture. It is important for us to see how our actions affects the things around us and not just ourselves. This art piece is intended for an audience of people who enjoy going out in the outdoors a lot and the age group of 12-30 years old. This is for them to stop and understand how trash affects the environment. Each piece of trash can kill wildlife. The longer we preserve the environment, the longer we can enjoy it for. I personally would want Boy Scouts at summer camps to see this, since they spend a huge amount of time outside. I personally like that you need to interpret this piece slowly, since it forces people to look at the bigger picture and not just run through nature.

- Cristian Vera 2016

 Heal the bay art project

After participating in the Heal the Bay beach clean up, I was surprised by the amount of trash we clean up from the Dockweiler beach. The total amount of pieces trash was four thousand. I remember at that day, there was a sofa left in the middle of the beach like a missing child. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it is the truth. 

My artwork used a soda bottle as a flower pot to grow a green onion. The reason I pick a green onion instead of flowers is because green onion goes well with my omelet.  The message I try to send out is, we need to put our trash in the right place, bottles and cans should go to recycle bin. Please don’t litter, most the trash at the beach because people are lazy to put it in the trash can. 

The ocean is rich in natural resources and is the cradle of all life. Many people’s daily food depends on the ocean and so caring for the ocean is the caring for our future. However, our urban construction development has created major conflict with the marine ecological balance. One way that humans breaks the balance was industries dumping waste in the sea causes water pollution. Some of the waste will float in the sea or remain in the seabed. Some of the waste would stay at the beach. Protecting the ocean environment that we live has become our responsibility. Start today never too late.

Community Engagement + art project The aluminum rose

       

                                                                 The aluminum rose

            I call my art project as the aluminum rose. I use cans to make this project because I want people know that they can also became a beautiful art, and also remind people to not throwing trash into public environment. January 24, 2016, I went to a event call “Adopt A Beach Program and  this event is good for us because this is good for our community.  We need to be there at 9am and our teacher will tell us what we should pick up and what we should not pick. They things we should not pick up are needle  condom ,sanitary napkin ect. This programs goal is to clean up the Dockweiler Beach. We found out lots of trashes and some of them were cans. We recorded all the trash that we pick up in the trash bag and we will do a final calculate of how many trash did we pick up  After spending  two hours of clean up and I was shock by the huge amount  number of the trash that we picked. . After the result the total pieces is 4 thousands. This data will also sent to the “Heal the Bay” program in Los Angeles county to claim for more money and use it on the beach.

           

           
          Trash does not simply disappear. When it leaves our house, it will end up to Landfill, an incinerator, recycling center. But people don't know that   most of the trash are end up throwing into the ocean. Once the trash go into the sea, and it will be very hard to clean up. These trash makes a huge struggle to a ocean lives. Lots of trash were ate from the animals and causing them a serious health issue or death.  My idea is to convince people not to throwing trash into the ocean. My audience are all the Americans that live in this country. Let's be responsible to our world and start action to protect our nature. 

Spout of Hope

"Sprout of Hope" 

  

When I did the beach clean-up at Dockweiler State Beach, I had collected trash to turn them in an art project. The total trash that we cleaned up was approximately 4030 pieces. According to Heal the Bay website, millions of pounds of trash find their way to go to the ocean every day. The data shows that people littered on the beach. The large number of trash on the beaches is only a fraction of the trash that ends up in oceans. This says a lot about how careless people are when it comes to disposing their trash.

 The total amount of trash collectively builds up over time. They will contaminate the water, affect the current flow, damage the natural habitat and finally cause diseases to marine animals. According to the Heal the Bay website, when people leave trash such as plastics or Styrofoam on the sand, the litter get carried out into the ocean. Marine animal will think that the litter is food and then consume them. They could also get trapped or strangled by plastic bags or other litter. For example, over 1 million seabirds and 100,000 sea mammals are killed by pollution every year. This fact disturbed me and inspired me to emphasize consciousness in other people by creating my piece of art.

 My art project included all of the trash that I have collected. I used all of the bottle caps to create sun flowers and straws to make branches. For the background, I use candy wrappers, plastic bags, and cigarettes butt to make clouds, and the rest of the trash: wood, seaweed, and tree plants turn in to a nice background. The artwork showed us that even in the dark background, there will be some sun flowers which will shine in the dark. The sunflowers represent hope. A hope for our oceans and for our earth. I want to convey the message to others that they can be one of the sunflowers of hope when they consciously think about taking care of the ocean. When people see my artwork, it will inspire and inform them on the necessity that we need to take actions to protect our environment and also the natural habitat of marine animals.

           

The Plastic Footprint

The very first plastic, based on a synthetic polymer, was invented in 1907, by Leo Hendrik Baekeland. Since then, we have used plastic in many different ways to create durable, everyday items. However, plastic has not been properly disposed of and has ended up in the ground and in our oceans, both polluting the world’s ecosystems and affecting sea life.

Though plastic is beneficial for its uses, it is harmful because it ends up in the ocean and remains floating on the surface because it never fully biodegrades. When plastic reaches the ocean it is a threat to animals who depend on the ocean for food and mistaken plastic for food. Marine creatures, such as sea turtles, seals, fish, and even birds mistaken plastic for food. When these creatures eat plastic, the plastic remains in their stomachs and tricks their digestive system to believe they are full, so they don’t eat and eventually starve to death. For instance, sea turtles often mistake plastic bags for sea jellies and albatrosses mistake plastic resin pellets for fish eggs. Another problem is ghost fishing ,which occurs when marine mammals get entangled in abandoned plastic fishing nets, causing starvation, exhaustion, or infection from deep wounds.. Plastic has had a negative impact on sea life because it ends up in the ocean and doesn't biodegrade completely.

Recently, I volunteered at the Cabrillo beach clean up. The beach clean up was important to keep the beach clean and help prevent trash to enter our ocean and cause more severe effects. During the clean up I collected trash, such as plastic and got recycled styrofoam from home to include in my art project. The art project I created is a sea turtle, which I carved out of recycled styrofoam. The sea turtle represents one of the many creatures affected by individuals who aren’t properly disposing plastic and other items. As explained above, many creatures, such as sea turtles, confuse plastic for food, which remains in their stomach as seen in my art project. The plastic around its neck shows how creatures, such as sea turtles, get caught in plastic. My art project portrays how sea turtles are harmed by plastic in the ocean.

Over several years the plastic which ends up in the ocean is accumulated and remains floating on the earth’s surface. To help prevent the plague of plastic in our ocean individuals and communities can recycle, reuse plastic, use replacement items not made of plastic. Another solution would be for companies who make plastic products to help by using plastic that is easier to biodegrade. This way their products will be made of plastic that doesn’t end up in the ocean because it will be able to biodegrade quicker. One way to help clean the trash already on the ground is to organize a beach cleanup to prevent plastic from being washed up in the ocean and be eaten by a sea creature or bird. Plastic first started off as a great way to store items and more, but it has grown over the years into one of the most harmful pollutants because it is not being properly disposed of.

“Ocean Plastics Pollution: A Global Tragedy for Our Oceans and Sea Life.” Center for

Biological Diversity. n.p., n.d. Web. 1 March 2016.

“The History and Future of Plastics.” Chemical Heritage Foundation. n.p., 2010. Web. 01 March

2016.