Two Sides to the Same World

Neil.M, Grade 9, Timber Creek High

As the years go by it has become common knowledge that the Earth’s condition is steadily deteriorating. So why do we just watch? why do we wait until it comes back around to us? The truth is no matter how hard you try in one way or another you are always contributing to climate change. In today’s world it is simply impossible to get on with your life without leaving a carbon footprint.

For my energy inspired art, I have made a 3D flower replica out of recycled cardboard and paper. In my art piece I have made two flowers, one flower that is healthy and thriving, and another one that is dry and dead. The healthy flower has a background with solar panels, wind turbines, and clear blue skies. However, the dying flower has a background with factories pumping out black smoke and spilling harmful chemicals. A small detail that I have added to the background of the dying flower is that the factory has a Chinese and an American flag, The Chinese flag makes sense because most factories are in China. China also has the most carbon emissions out of any country in the world, however in a sense it may not be China’s fault. If we trace back to the factories, then we can see that the factories are owned or endorsed by American companies. These companies access the cheap labor market and to some level can be held accountable for these carbon emissions.

Step 1: I got all the materials that I needed after coming up with the idea.
Step 2: I traced the petals onto paper and cut them out
Step 3: I used a glue stick to glue the petals together and make a cone
Step 4: I Used hot glue to make rings of petals and stacked them on top of each other then glued them
Step 5: I rolled up a piece of paper to make the stem, I then cut notches into the stem and bent and glued them shut to give the stem a bit of a curve
Step 6: I hot glued the stem onto the flower and covered the bottom with more petals
Step 6: I cut the cardboard and glued the frame into shape, I then glued pieces of paper onto the cardboard and drew the scenery

I did the same thing for the dead flower but I bent the stem by hand and used less crushed petals