Final Project: Addiction

Many teenagers today are swept by Juul products.  It's everywhere you look through posters, commercials, and even billboards.  These Juul's were targeted at this generation, rather than adult smokers and is ultimately ruining peoples lives.  I don't think that anyone realized how far this addiction would come for people, since most believe they will not get addicted.

People that have never had nicotine before, will never truly understand the pain it causes to quit.  It's one of the hardest things I've ever attempted, and is why I've failed three times. I wanted to create this piece so that people who have never smoked, would realize that starting isn't a smart decision and could ruin your life. 

This is the feeling I have dealing with this addiction.  I hope this spreads light on a serious topic that will just get more out of control if nothing is done.

Since I created this on the iPad, I don't have much process work, rather than images that inspired me to create this piece.

While creating this piece, I was mentored by Savannah for advice on what to do and how I should accomplish this.  I originally started with one idea of a girl staring up at juul pods that were brightened by light, although we both felt that is promoted the idea of smoking. that was eventually scratched and started over.  Both of us felt that my original idea did not scream addiction or rather the idea of wanting to quit, although both are true. 

I then came up with this idea, which was my final showing a girl as a puppet with a large snake making her feel closed off and suffocating.  I related to this feeling of when i lose my juul in my sheets or if im not able to smoke hours on end. There is a cloud on a string representing the smoke that's being forced to come out in order to relieve the feeling withdraws.  For me, I can go about 5 hours without smoking, but I will start to feel the effects since I have been smoking for about a year and a half now. I also incorporated a spiral for the feeling of not being able to keep control of the situation of addiction.  No one realizes how addicting this substance is until you start. If I could go back in time and never pick up the juul at my first party in college, I would.

As I created my piece, I put my own input and came up with this:

Here are some close ups to view the detail I created:

I hope this spreads awareness on addiction.  I wanted to create the true feeling on what it means to quit smoking to better your health.  Theres one way to avoid this: never start.