This picture shows a series of steps, with man-made stone tiles and patches of grass. The colors are gentle, soothing and harmonious, with no signs of clashing or striking colors. The colors of the stone tiles are brown and complementing the khaki soil and green grass. It adds a sense of sophistication and style and a hint of technology to it, enhancing Nature’s beauty. There is also a balance of colors; the picture on its own is very pleasant and gentle to look at.
Also, we can see that both the man-made tiles and the natural soil patches are needed to create the steps. Staircases give us an idea of improvement and advancement. It shows that Man has to complement Nature, give a thought for Nature, making sure his actions are not harming her. At the same time Nature has to facilitate Man in his survival and furtherance of science and technology. Both have to collaborate with each other in order for real advancement to be made.
In the world today, we can see that Man is very selfish, using up Nature’s resources for his own materialistic advancement. Also we are producing so much waste that it is choking our mother Earth. We are inconsiderate and our actions have resulted in an ailing Earth. We are not progressing with Nature in mind, thus there is no real development, since we are causing destruction to our environment with every ‘step’ we make.
Seemingly harmonious, actually separated
This picture illustrates a man-made fence, with a few leaves in front of it. There are numerous trees in the background, filling up the whole picture, and thus give a perception that the forest is vast and never-ending.
The trees and leaves represent Nature, its vastness, grandeur and majesty. The fence represents Man’s desires for modernization and industrialization. Both the fence and the forest are green, with different shades and saturation. Being of the same hue, they appear to be in harmony.
However, no matter how seemingly harmonious they are, they cannot blend in together as one in reality. Just like in William Wordsworth’s The World Is Too Much With Us, Man is just “out of tune.” Like the fence, preoccupation with the material world is restricting us to appreciate nature. We are locking ourselves up, away from nature and refusing to know about it. The picture is a very vivid depiction of the reality in society today of how Man is disassociating himself from Nature due to obsession with the modern world.
Also, in the picture, the vast nature is not noticeable, with the fence stealing the limelight as the centre of attraction. It is just like how modernization shifted our attention away from Nature, where we really belong. We are not aware of Nature’s beauty, its boundlessness and majesty.
The few leaves in the foreground represent our connection with Nature. Little do we know about Nature. The leaves are insignificant compared to the limitless forest. We have already lost most of our connection with Mother Nature. Yet we do not learn to cherish it, we are not even aware of it. We are too distracted by modernization to notice anything.
Until we are willing to unlock the door restricting us to nature, the key being the riddance of greed, we will not be as one with nature.
Mother and Child
This picture portrays a child, tugging at the vine of an enormous tall tree while standing on the roots of the tree. There is a patch of grass and some plants in the background.The centre of attraction of this picture is none other than the child himself, representing Man. He is pulling the vines of the trees while attempting to climb up. Similarly, in the urban world today, Man is making use of Nature and its resources to improve himself in the materialistic terms, and reaching new heights in the development of technology.
The child is wearing clothes of colors red and white, as compared to the cooler hues of nature, namely green and brown in this picture. The colors are not exactly harmonious, but clashing. The child, portraying Man, stands out as the colors red and white is very striking, stealing attention from beautiful Nature.
Due to the cooler and calmer colors of the tree trunk and green plants, it narrates Nature as a loving and gentle mother, nurturing Man like a child. She is also benevolent, enduring all Man’s mischief, greed and selfishness patiently while guiding and waiting for him to grow up. She also provides shelter for Man, as seen in the picture, the tree cast shadows to shield the child from sunlight. There is a great contrast shown in the hues and the aura – the child is immature, juvenile and vibrant while Nature is sensible, down-to-earth and calm. Once again it shows the comparison of Nature as mother and Man as child. Also, as a child is dependant on his mother, Man is also dependant on Nature. It can be clearly shown through the relationship of Man and Nature in the urban world today, as Man uses nature’s resources to ensure survival.
However, in this picture, it shows that Nature dominates over Man, but in a less blatant way. Comparing the size of both, the child is only as big as the root of the trunk, while the tree is enormous and tall. The tree being so much bigger, shows that Nature is dominant over Man. This fact is sometimes unnoticed because of the shift in attention to the bright and radiant child.
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