BRHS Student Hopes To Raise Climate Change Awareness With Her Teapot

BRIDGEWATER, NJ — A teapot, in the estimation of a sophomore at Bridgewater-Raritan High School, can pour out awareness to the world.

The global-wide issue of Climate Change is not a tempest in the teapot created by this student, Lauren Yang.

Yang took her project offered in Angela Morin’s Ceramics 2 class this past fall at Bridgewater-Raritan High School and crafted a teapot that not only answered her assignment but made its way to the Greater Richmond Convention Center in Virginia, where it will be on display with 149 other prized ceramic pieces from around the country from March 20-22.

Yang's artwork titled "Bleached Ocean” was one of 150 ceramic pieces that were selected out of a field of 1,169 entries in the 27th Annual National K-12 Ceramic Exhibition Competition.

Morin was notified by officials from The National K-12 Ceramic Exhibition Foundation of Lauren’s selection on Feb. 6.

According to the website of the The National K-12 Ceramic Exhibition Foundation, which is based in Richmond, the Trustees are about sustaining and showcasing excellence in American ceramic art education. Our Annual National K-12 Ceramic Exhibition, our Scholarship Program and support of ceramic arts teachers frame our three main goals and guide our work.

Morin, who is in her first year teaching ceramics at Bridgewater-Raritan High School, explained the project that led to Lauren’s prestigious recognition.

"The original class assignment was about conveying empathy in a subject of the student's choice through a teapot and glaze design," Morin said. "Lauren said that she chose to make the top rows of coral more colorful but fade them to white as they approach the bottom of the pot, in order to bring awareness and start a conversation about how Climate Change is causing the collapse of ocean coral reefs."

Yang's teapot is covered with mostly colorful coral reefs and also features the handle and the spout, which are both colored dark to depict a wooden dock, barnacles, and an octopus. When lifting the lid off the teapot, the inside is colored blue.

"Blue like the ocean," Yang said.

She further detailed her award-winning piece of art which she revealed was named "Bleached Ocean" in a joint venture with Morin.

"The teapot is inspired by the ocean and the gray colors at the bottom show that the coral is being bleached and is dying off," said Yang, who used clay and glaze over about three to four weeks to complete.

She revealed her mission.

"The teapot will bring awareness to Climate Change. I did some research and 44 percent of the world has been affected by Climate Change. I believe that more people should know and care about it," said Yang.

While Yang is not a student of Morin during this second semester, she is a frequent visitor to Room 107 at the high school. So much so, that she is in the process of creating another ceramic artwork.

"She is so awesome. She comes in on her free time and does work," Morin said.

Yang's present work is a human heart.

"The teapot is ecology and the heart is anatomy," Yang said. "I may in the future be in the medical field."

But for the present time, she is focused on sharing the issue of Climate Change.

"I want to bring more awareness than a teapot and continue to educate and inspire," said Yang.

— Submitted by Bridgewater-Raritan Regional School District