The isolation of Western society from the revelations of nature

Abstract

My people have become disconnected from Nature. I live in Western society, which is a monetary-based, globalizing, technological empire that is occupying many of the world's cultures and quickly absorbing the rest. Western society shapes the minds of its subjects by overloading their senses through technological stimulation and isolation from the non-human world. Further, people become physically and mentally entrapped within the man made world becoming more separated from the natural world. This severance leads to two negative outcomes: the destruction of the natural world and ignorance toward God. My upbringing helped me fall in love with nature, but the world outside of my family unit exposed me to the dysfunction of Western society. My recent work, large scale charcoal drawings, is a means to reconcile this disconnect. I look back to the Pre-Columbian Americans who were nearly perfectly in tune with nature. Concepts of fairy lore have helped me understand the connection between the untamed imagination and harmony with nature. The Western artists Kathe Kollwitz and Salvador Dali have affected me with their perception and expression of Western society juxtaposed with nature. Music also has had a strong effect on me. My thesis is intended to give the reader a doorway into understanding my art.