My name is Hannah Vargas. I am in XLab and have been attending One Stone through quarantine this past school year. I applied to be at this school with the hopes that it would provide a safe environment and effective learning strategies for me, and so far, I have been more than impressed with how professional and engaging the immersions are. I have a deep love for anything and everything artistically crafted, and I admire people who can portray the darkness of humanity through their works. I find joy in nature, and I like to locate intricacy in everyday objects. I feel strongly connected to animals, and I prefer them to humans. I enjoy investigating and learning about dark, and often strange, topics in history, and I am very interested in psychology. Nature and art are some of my most valued subjects and are a key section of my T Popper, so I combined them for this particular artifact of learning to showcase several native Idaho plant species using watercolor technique. To accomplish this, I used my skills developed during my Landscape Watercolor immersion, employing both accurate tracing and watercolor painting to make realistic renderings of the plants. To me, doing good is understanding a problem and being willing to take action to fix it. That is why I was so impressed and inspired when learning about nature conservation in Idaho. There are so many opportunities for land to be destroyed and developed for buildings, neighborhoods, workplace facilities, etc., but there will always be a need for balance between the amount of wildlife we take and how much we leave. During my immersion surrounding nature and watercolor, I attended an interview with an Idaho activist who makes it their priority to keep that balance and examine development plans and other laws to ensure no protected land will be harmed. Their work is difficult, because it requires them to stand up to our government and push back against companies that are being destructive in their land usage. It is important work, however, and provides us with natural habitats that we can enjoy freely. Though my artworks may not be much, I made them out of respect for the work done by conservation activists to show that part of the reason these plants still exist today is due to the work of those fighting to protect our environment. My watercolor artifacts depict plants native to Idaho, and are related to what breaks my heart because so much fighting has to be done in order to preserve the habitat these plants reside in. It is precious for us to even have access to view these plants in real life. Realizing this made me empathize deeply with nature conservation workers and inspired me to do my own part in bringing awareness to the environment that surrounds us. So I made these art pieces to show my peers exactly what environmental activists are fighting for and why we should appreciate them so much. I hope that these watercolors not only give an example of what we are privileged to have, but also inspire others to do their part in preserving our small slice of wildlife. Over these past ten weeks, I have learned that I care about nature more than I thought I did, and I am now interested in investigating how I can take part in preserving our natural environment.
