Homoplankton/Anthroplankton

This is a project I worked on while still in college, inspired by phytoplankton/zooplankton and their role in the natural environment as well as the global oceanic ecosystem. What you're seeing is several species of plankton superimposed on top of a human skull, which would form a skull shape if you took out the outline.

The theme of the drawing is that, because of climate change, ocean acidification, and the present environmental crisis we're facing, plankton are being exterminated from the world's oceans in large numbers year after year, which will negatively affect us and the rest of life on Earth down the line. The oceans are vital to life on Earth, and plankton even more so, since they form the bedrock of the marine food web, and are responsible for both producing up to half of the Earth's oxygen and taking away carbon from the atmosphere.

If plankton were to become endangered or die out, the marine food web would collapse, leading to the cascading collapse of the fishing industry, and other industries that rely on ocean life, and the oceans becoming uninhabitable and anoxic. Furthermore, without any plankton to remove Earth's atmospheric carbon or supply the planet with oxygen, oxygen levels would drop precipitously and carbon levels would continue to increase, warming up our planet further and worsening ecological catastrophe, which could pose a risk for humanity and life on Earth. The human skull symbolizes death--because without plankton in our ocean, literally everything will die after the collapse of the natural ecosystem.

Like some of my other pieces, I did this project mostly by myself, but with some guidance from professors. To date it is one of my best art pieces to date and I consider it one of my most memorable ones, because it involves a topic I am passionate about.