Art Exhibitions and Artwork Descriptions
Making the work "Consumer Emissions"
Consumer Emissions
Click this link to see a zoom-view of "Consumer Emissions"
This is the story of making "Consumer Emissions." I first created three studies to experiment with the mediums and imagery, pictured below. The mediums I used were Gum Arabic (l'Aquarelle French watercolor) and Polychromos (Faber-Castell oil-based color pencils with Caran d'Ache luminous white) on Crescent watercolor board. I wanted to create an atmospheric landscape using Gum Arabic (watercolor) but with the surreal imagery made from Polychromos (archival color pencil) while they attain the same space and with atmospheric perspective. I was interested in capturing the fine richness of the mediums and materials to express a fantastical landscape that has symbolic meaning.
The concept of "Consumer Emissions" is rooted in Buddhism's Four Noble Truths. At the root of suffering is attachments, which associates with desire or the need for consumption. It requires a desire to act on, or need, consumption, and I represent these abstract actions with surreal imagery, like strings or worms reaching out and consuming or attaching to raw materials or the natural environment. Though the focus in the work isn't strictly on consumption, it also focuses on a byproduct of consumerism, which is emissions. The process of developing raw materials into a marketable product creates emissions. And as well, for everything we consume, there is an equal byproduct of waste or emissions, whether environmentally productive or not. Matter and energy cannot be created nor destroyed, but only transformed; that which is consumed must emit or transform into something new, which often is pollution. The question is, are our emissions destructive or productive to our environment or raw materials, and does it matter?
Our earth's ecosystem has relied on cycles to be sustainable, plants and animals consume natural products (fruits of the earth), and then the emissions (energy, oxygen, fertilizer) feedback into the cycle of life. But, we as humans, create emissions that pollute rather than contribute to the system. Is this a sustainable model? Can we make a sustainable model? I believe we can, but we have to change our thinking to take accountability for our consumption and emission sustainability problems. This includes me.
"Exhaust Drone"
By Adam Mitchell
6 x 6 inches
Gum Arabic and Polychromos on Cold Press watercolor board
2022
"Desire Worm Emissions"
By Adam Mitchell
6 x 9 inches
Gum Arabic and Polychromos on Cold Press watercolor board
2022
"The Destructive Nature of Attachments"
By Adam Mitchell
6 x 15 inches
Gum Arabic and Polychromos on Cold Press watercolor board
2022
"Consumer Emissions"
By Adam Mitchell
30 x 22 inches
Gum Arabic and Polychromos on Cold Press Watercolor Board
2022
The Framing Thought Process:
The framing of "Consumer Emissions" includes triple-stacked matboards with reverse bevels. The matboard color gives a calm space between the art and the frame, and the reverse bevel makes it so the white core of the matboard is not revealed. The triple stack creates an architectural element and lifts the acrylic glass higher above the art than just one matboard. The glass is an expensive piece of museum glass that protects the art and reduces glare for clarity of viewing. The frame is a bronze color which brings out the dark colors in the painting, and the frame package is designed as an archival case for protecting the art from acidic materials and UV rays.
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