I GAVE YOU FIRE AND WATCHED EDEN BURN

New artwork on environmentalism finished yesterday on 8/1/2024.

About the piece:

The main theme of this piece pulls references from Genesis and applies it to our modern dystopian world. In the center, there is a snake coiled around a deer skull. The snake, being the tempter who gave man the essence of knowledge, now rests on the aftermath of humanities sins. It's eyes now blank from death. The deer skull also symbolizes the death of our world. Horns, or in this case antlers, are associated with gods of death, which the snake rest upon. The wendigo is a spirit of death, hunger, and gluttony, and is depicted with a deer or elk skull with a body made of carcasses and remains. This fits well with the theme of the artwork, with humanity's ceaseless hunger and consumption of resources.

Around the skull is a barren landscape. Dead trees with plastic bags caught in the branches are seen in the background, along with rocks, logs, and litter. Amongst the litter is the remnants of an apple, once again referencing The Bible. It has been eaten whole, with what was left of it tossed neglectfully with the rest of the trash. The idea is that man has consumed the apple of knowledge, and throws it aside no longer having use of it.

In the background, skyscrapers pierce the sky and invade the upper half of the piece, circled by a vortex cloud of smog. Billboards sit atop the building with the messages "EAT, BUY, REPRODUCE", enforcing the idea that civilization is reduced to following this mechanical cycle from marketing and societal expectation. The vortex of smog is a strong reference to an illustration by The Beehive Design Collective titled The True Cost of Coal, where a hole pierces the atmosphere caused by a cloud sea of pollution. This has also become fitting because of the effects of climate change causing hurricanes to move more inland, as a sign of nature's revenge.

In conclusion, I have a lot of pride in this piece, from detail to overall design. Using spiritual and dystopian symbols was a powerful way to convey our succession from our natural roots and the destruction of the environment. It's my intention that this artwork conveys some message about our modern world.