Lesson 4 Painting Our World Greener
Art & Our Environment
While art can ____ up a sense of beauty in us, it can also draw a spirited reaction from the public.
An excellent artistic piece can communicate a message to us and even change our ways of ____ at our surroundings.
That is why art has played an essential role in addressing social and ____ issues throughout history.
Let us take a look at a few modern artworks that address environmental ____.
The first art piece is a photograph by Benjamin ____ Wong.
His artworks rally ____ around environmental actions.
In the photo on the left, titled ____ Off the Plastic Tap, he tries to highlight the fact that a huge amount of plastic enters the ocean every minute.
He says, “You can’t order a product online without ____ it delivered in plastic packaging.
Also, the clothes you are ____ must be, at least in part, made of plastic.
Dependence on ____ is built into the supply chain, so the individual consumer finds it harder and harder to opt out.
Of course, you can choose not to purchase products ____ plastic, but that only goes so far.
I think it is important for you to inform your friends and family of the issue because at the end of the day, you ____, companies and governments can’t ignore the interest of the consumers.
At the same time, we also need to pressure governments and corporations to do the ____ thing.”
Forget Me Not
The next piece, titled Forget Me Not, is ____ Kendler’s personal love letter to the sea.
She covered an old boom box with various shells, which ____ her a year to collect.
The boom box plays something you may regard as calming ____ sounds.
They are actually what she ____ as she had one of her baby teeth dissolve in acid.
She wanted us to think of what sea creatures might go through one day if we ____ burning fossil fuels carelessly.
As the ocean absorbs more and more carbon dioxide, it becomes more and ____ acidic.
Under this condition, the ____ shells of many marine species will dissolve.
Kendler says, “I wanted to ____ people to raise their own awareness about what they can actually do as individuals, but at the same time, I hoped to encourage collective action and collective responsibility.
One thing that art can do really well is to help us imagine how the ____ might be otherwise.
Certainly, we can’t get to a ____ place if we can’t imagine it.”
Homestead
The piece below, titled Homestead, is a painting by Jon ____.
Most of his work, including this painting, is a celebration of nature and a quiet appeal to humans to appreciate the ____ around them.
“I ____ we’ve separated ourselves from nature and no longer see how we fit in.
Instead of helping ____ thrive, we are simply consuming it,” says Ching.
One ____ help but smile at his paintings, which are rich in color and tenderness.
One of the fun ____ of his work is how he blends the features of one life form with those of another.
“I’ve been using my work as a means of commenting on issues and ____ I’m heavily interested in.
I ____ it necessary to express a silver lining rather than just reflect on what’s wrong.
I want to show that everything is connected and that protecting nature is ____ protecting us.
My call to ____ is to remember the magic and wonder of this planet.”
Art can strike up conversations about the environment, but more importantly, it ____ also make a great difference by inspiring us to take action.
The following words from Andy Warhol, an American pop ____, ring especially true in this context.
“They always say time changes things, but you actually ____ to change them yourself.”