I had hard time thinking of what I wanted to create for this weeks art activity. Since I am stuck in quarantine I was very limited to organic material I could find around my house. I decided my best bet was to find material in my backyard. I instantly realized what I wanted to do once I went there. My family and I haven’t been going in my backyard so there is dead leaves all over the ground. My idea for my project was to create something using the dead leaves, rocks, and living leaves in my backyard and do a bit of cleaning at the same time. I decided to create a heart out of the rocks and fill it in with dead leaves that have fallen off my plants and pull some living leaves off of them as-well. I then took a bunch of the small dead leaves that were all over the ground and created a border around the rocks. I wanted to play with the theme of life and death. My creation was inspired by a quote by Haruki Murakami that said said “death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it”. The heart is symbolic of life itself and inside of it are both dead and living leaves. Nobody can escape death so people should not live their lives in fear of it. The border of the dead leaves around the heart represents that there is no escape of death. I think my creation does a great job of expressing my idea.
I think a kiss should last however long the people that are kissing want it to last. A great meal should last a life time. The taste of the food does not always make the meal great, it can be the company, view, or mindset that one has while having that meal. They can make the great meal into a memory and make it last a life time. A work of art should last forever. That does not meal that the art will stay prevalent forever but it doesn’t mean the art should be taken down or apart. A marriage should last a life time if you are with the right person but if things are not going the way you want them to or you do not love your significant other then that marriage should not last. Human life should last however long it can last. There is not a set age that a human’s life is meant to last, however that does not mean it would be unfortunate for a young child to loose their life before they get the chance to explore the world and learn about theme-selves.
Knowing that things like ephemeral artworks and human lives having a finite time make a difference in the way we experience them. Since we do not know when our lives will be over we tend to try to take advantage of time we have by doing what we love and surrounding ourselves with those that make us happy. Things, like clean water, air, and land should be sustainable and long lasting. One person can make a difference in a global problem like Climate Change. All changes begin with one person making changes in their lives and inspiring others to do the same.
Shivani Patel 