Tara Khodaei

Greedy Seed

I have always loved both science and art, but I did not have an opportunity to follow my art dreams seriously. I never had the chance to take art courses, however it has always been my favorite means of expressing of my feelings and beliefs. To me, painting is a means of meditation and self-expression and gives me an opportunity to reflect upon my experiences. I found a passion for art as a kid when I was simply drawing ordinary objects at school and struggling to make stories of them. My admiration and amazement with painting has evolved over time. I got encouragement from my friends in my junior year of college to have an exhibition of my artwork at the university. I started to use painting as a way of capturing and highlighting the complexities of being a human, particularly a woman, with all the struggles and joys, to reflect the social issues that affect people’s daily lives, and to speak out against the mistreatment of cultures and communities. As a woman, I believe in the power of art to provoke social changes. In a world which reacts to women’s voices, being a woman and an artist is an act of refusal of the strict limitations of gender roles and the limitations placed against women in different cultures. There has always been the issue of gender inequality on an international scale.

My piece highlights the human seizure of planet Earth and how it directly affects the collapse of ecosystems and the loss of nature. Human population growth beyond Earth’s capacity and our uncontrolled behavior leads to deteriorating ecosystems, shrinking populations of plants and animals, and even vanishing species. We, as human beings, are greedy seeds with the passion to seize the origin of our birth. We will face the collapse of everything that gives us our security. Planet Earth is facing one of its most noticeable biodiversity crises, and humans are behind this catastrophe. We are destroying nature at an unprecedented rate to rebuild based on our desires.