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Description
This piece goes with The Bear of Peace

My family has always had an interest in bears. I am not quite sure where it stems from, but it has been there as long as I can remember. I grew up with bear-like nicknames, I bought and received bear merchandise for many holidays and special occasions, I spent a lot of time watching bears at zoos, and even the campground I grew up frequently attending had bears as mascots. Today, this interest in bears seems to have only increased. We have had two taxidermy bears in our home, and our entire bathroom now features bear-themed furniture and decor. This piece was one of my contributions to this family-held tradition.
Bears often receive a bad reputation and are frequently portrayed as fierce creatures who will harm humans at any chance they get. However, more often than not, they will try to avoid confrontations with us. Bears spend most of their time alone and foraging for food or sleeping. Bears in North America eat mostly plants, fruit, nuts, bugs, and fish, rather than other mammals. I wanted to depict this very serene and peaceful side to bears. There is an exception. Mother bears are well-known for their fierce protection of their young. This powerful urge has even given rise to the term “mama bear” to describe protective humans. While bears can get aggressive in this situation, I believe this behavior is more admirable than to be seen as a fault. After all, the future of the next generation is an important goal to secure for nearly every species around the world. Due to this, I also wanted to depict this protective and instinctual side to bears.
A diptych was an appropriate approach for my piece. Being displayed in this manner allows viewers to clearly see the juxtaposition of these two sides to bears. The american black bear is the species of bear I am most familiar with and is most common in our area. I chose to include religious imagery, such as a blessing hand gesture and a stained-glass background to accentuate the inherent purity of being one of God’s creatures. The head piece featured in the drawing is a necklace that was gifted to me by a friend. The presence of it ties the two bears together. It also adds a more personal signifier to my art because other pieces I have done of bears have also featured this necklace. This accessory can also be worn as a headpiece. I have included it this way in this piece to represent the two different mindsets of the featured bears. Overall, the pieces were created to be significantly related, but to represent two very different sides of the same creature.
Art (c) Becca Petersen

Medium: Charcoal
Took about ten hours to complete

Description
This piece goes with The Bear of Peace

My family has always had an interest in bears. I am not quite sure where it stems from, but it has been there as long as I can remember. I grew up with bear-like nicknames, I bought and received bear merchandise for many holidays and special occasions, I spent a lot of time watching bears at zoos, and even the campground I grew up frequently attending had bears as mascots. Today, this interest in bears seems to have only increased. We have had two taxidermy bears in our home, and our entire bathroom now features bear-themed furniture and decor. This piece was one of my contributions to this family-held tradition.
Bears often receive a bad reputation and are frequently portrayed as fierce creatures who will harm humans at any chance they get. However, more often than not, they will try to avoid confrontations with us. Bears spend most of their time alone and foraging for food or sleeping. Bears in North America eat mostly plants, fruit, nuts, bugs, and fish, rather than other mammals. I wanted to depict this very serene and peaceful side to bears. There is an exception. Mother bears are well-known for their fierce protection of their young. This powerful urge has even given rise to the term “mama bear” to describe protective humans. While bears can get aggressive in this situation, I believe this behavior is more admirable than to be seen as a fault. After all, the future of the next generation is an important goal to secure for nearly every species around the world. Due to this, I also wanted to depict this protective and instinctual side to bears.
A diptych was an appropriate approach for my piece. Being displayed in this manner allows viewers to clearly see the juxtaposition of these two sides to bears. The american black bear is the species of bear I am most familiar with and is most common in our area. I chose to include religious imagery, such as a blessing hand gesture and a stained-glass background to accentuate the inherent purity of being one of God’s creatures. The head piece featured in the drawing is a necklace that was gifted to me by a friend. The presence of it ties the two bears together. It also adds a more personal signifier to my art because other pieces I have done of bears have also featured this necklace. This accessory can also be worn as a headpiece. I have included it this way in this piece to represent the two different mindsets of the featured bears. Overall, the pieces were created to be significantly related, but to represent two very different sides of the same creature.
Art (c) Becca Petersen

Medium: Charcoal
Took about ten hours to complete