How is Art Helpful?

Submitted by Willow Guild and Connor Adams

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Yesterday, May 12, 2016, an artist named Aaron Staples came to our school and gave us a presentation about his work. His art raises awareness about endangered animals and we are working to help restore the run of alewives into our marsh.

Aaron grew up in Lincoln, Maine where they had a paper factory there. The paper factory puts a lot of pollution into the Penobscot River. Aaron said that they could never go swimming or eat fish that came from the river because of how polluted it was. That said, that was one of his many inspirations to start creating artwork that showed us all of the environmental issues that we have been causing.

%22Yellowfin%22 Aaron Staples

“Yellowfin” by Aaron Staples

He first started drawing when he was little, inspired by Where’s Waldo. He later on went to a college called MECA. It is an art institute that specializes in computer design, but eventually he wanted to work with his hands again, so he took a class that involved a Chinese and Japanese ink painting style called sumi-e.

Aaron Staples puts a lot of detail in his work and all of his artwork has a story to tell. His artwork is very interesting to see because he has a lot of environmental problems that are shown in his work. Whenever you look at it, you find little things that you didn’t see before. In one of his ink paintings, he shows a city being built, and then just a mouse and a cockroach. The meaning of the painting is that humans take the resources they need, and leave, just leaving behind the lowest form of life. The mouse and cockroach are represented as the lowest form of life. In some of his other paintings, he shows a tuna, but there’s a whole story inside of it. He worked with a group called Not Just Tuna. The organization raises awareness of animals caught in trawls, such as turtles and sharks.

We really enjoyed seeing his presentation and hearing what he had to say about his artwork and think it’s good that he is using his talent to help improve the world. People say that one man can change the world and that’s exactly what Aaron Staples is doing.

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4 thoughts on “How is Art Helpful?

  1. I love how art is integrated into The Alewife Project learning expedition! The post was informative and well written — bravo Willow and Connor! It would be great to include a photo or two of the art work students did during the workshop with visiting artist Aaron Staples.

  2. Nice job Willow and Connor. Very well written. What are you all doing with the student artwork pictured in this post and created as part of the expedition?

    Mike

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