I created this piece in high school art class in 2014, using watercolor paints and oil-based pastels on a hard wood canvas.

The meaning behind “Human Progress” is made clear by its title and dark imagery. It expresses a pessimistic view of the human condition and our environmental impact. Soot-black, dripping footprints march towards a foreboding cloud of dark smoke on the horizon, between dead, uprooted trees floating up and away into the void. A grim-looking black cloak and scythe lie abandoned below one of the trees, as Death itself has either been conquered, made obsolete, or has simply finished its work with no lives left to take. The only comforting element in this strange landscape is a beautiful, brightly-colored sky, reminiscent of sunset, into which the trees are ascending.

This piece was submitted to VASE 2014 (Visual Arts Scholastic Event), where it was displayed and judged alongside hundreds of other artworks created by high-schoolers in North Texas, of which only a select few would be chosen to advance to the state-level competition. “Human Progress” was one of these few — despite the VASE judges’ usual preference for portraiture rather than surrealist or abstract art.

After this, I would never use oil-based pastels again, because I hated the way they mucked up my fingers.

Fortunately, this piece is one of a few that I’ve kept in my possession since high school. It hangs on the wall at my mom’s house.