This piece was inspired by environmental issues: both the melting of the glaciers and the polluting of the oceans with plastic and garbage that form “the great garbage patch.” Both pose serious environmental threats to marine and indigenous wildlife. Research shows that “polar bears are drowning because climate change is melting the Arctic ice shelf.” Polar bears are forced to hunt for food further away from shore with no safety net because the ice is disappearing. If the pollution in the ocean increases so much that the garbage and all the chemicals dumped into the ocean reaches the Arctic, what would happen? This piece was created as a reflective answer to that question. With no floating ice in sight, the polar bear, exhausted by its search for food, stands on the only thing keeping it from drowning, a frozen piece of radioactive garbage. Paradoxically, the polar bear is slowly dying from the very thing it believes is keeping it alive.

Materials: The frozen garbage is coated in underglazes, ad oxide wash and clear gloss glaze. The polar Bear is white terra sigillata.