Artist Statement:

     My painting addresses the environmental impacts of oil spills in the pacific specifically by the United States. Each set of rings reflects a different fish that has their own unique lifetime throughout the last one hundred years. Each contrasting ring is reflective of an oil spill caused by the United States in the rockfish’s habitat along the pacific coast. The bright orange and yellow colors are reflective of the fish’s natural coloring whereas the browns and blues are modeled after the attire of the fishermen holding the dead fish in reference photos. There has been a breakthrough regarding the study of the yellow eyed rockfish. It is known that lipids can be extracted from some hard animal tissues like whale baleen. Lipid extraction allows us to study certain hormone levels and the hard tissue growth allows us to determine at what point in time they were secreted. It was discovered that the yellow eyed rockfish’s operculum has a layering pattern in the bone allowing scientists to determine cortisol and sex hormone levels in year intervals. This information gives insight into how stressed the fish might be in a particular year in comparison to another. These fish live to be around 100, so when this data is cross referenced with environmental studies it is possible to determine how the population of fish might have been impacted by various environmental events. Layers in the operculum can be related to rings on a tree which is reflected in the piece.

Enquire: ashley_feild1@baylor.edu