This piece is called ‘Coral Bleaching’. I worked with Pat Chapman to use clayshay on wood, with wood disks that had the watercolor print below + found and molded objects.
Pat printed a watercolor of the Great Barrier Reef of Australia done in 1893 by William Saville Kent (see below) with less and less contrast. We used this to indicate the coral bleaching over time. Since 2016 half the Great Barrier Reef has died. Kent was an Englishman who immigrated to Australia and his book on the Great Barrier Reef was considered foundational for many years (Wikipedia).
We then cut out different sized circles from each version of the print and pasted them onto wood disks. Seen here below sorted from most intense to most faded on the table below.
The base is clayshay on wood and it is inspired by the pieces below by Caroline Douglas. The photo is mine from a recent show she did at the Dairy in Boulder.
From there, we glued the disks from most saturated at the bottom to least saturated at the top and finished with a light dry brush to emphasize the bleaching towards the top.
