Suburbia

As I have been examining landscapes and nature throughout the quarter I have noticed that nature rarely produces straight lines and manmade nature always incorporates straight lines.  The goal of this project was to show the manicured versus the wild.  We create natural environments by mowing the lawn, adding pavements to walk on, and introducing none native flowers.  All of the efforts are quite the opposite than what nature actually is.  We have become a weed to nature destroying the environment in order to put up what we perceive as a natural environment. 

I placed the dandelions on the edge of suburbia where the lawn service only mows about 2 feet from the side walk then the landscape turns into a forest of woods and weeds, a far-cry from the manicured suburbia landscape.

Colors of Nature

The piece was my favorite piece to work on because we use fine to tie all the branches together.  You can’t really tell from the photos but it was branches placed together to make an arch into the forest from the gravel sidewalk.  It was about 4 feet off of the ground and detailed with all sorts of foliage from the forest.  It was the gateway to nature for the urban development of the park.  I wish the pictures would have turned out better.

Gateway

The gateway was about 4 feet off of the ground creating a gateway to nature.

This picture is taken from the back of the piece to show our use of vines to tie the branches together.

The piece was my favorite piece to work on because we use fine to tie all the branches together.  You can’t really tell from the photos but it was branches placed together to make an arch into the forest from the gravel sidewalk.  It was about 4 feet off of the ground and detailed with all sorts of foliage from the forest.  It was the gateway to nature for the urban development of the park.  I wish the pictures would have turned out better.

Together

Me

Terri

Anna

This piece was my favorite of the collaborative projects.  We all really enjoyed working on it and really bonded with the environment and each other.  The piece was commenting on the use of the beach as a place people go to socialize with other people. 

The piece was in a very visible spot so people walking by were interested in what we were doing which made the experience even more worth while

Weighted Memories

 Weighted Memories

 The Address label of my current location and the location where I am about to move.  If you were to open the box the label would be cut in half signifying the separation from Steilacoom to Arizona.

The empty Arizona side of the box.  If you were to look through the key hole you would see a dark abyss of emptiness representative of my lack of memories associated with Arizona.

The Steilacoom side of things.  The Steilacoom side is filled with roughly 25 pounds of plaster signifying the weight of emotions I have associated with Steilacoom.  Since I am moving the side has a lock on it to show how this side of memories is now locked in my mind which can only recall  alimited representation of my life the past tow years.

This picture was taken to show how the two sides work with the image of the box.  The "top" of the picture is the Arizona side.  The "bottom" is the Steilacoom Side.

Weighted Memories- Artist Statement

During the artistic process of this assignment, I began to realize that a place moves from topos to chora because of the weight a person gives that place.  That "weight" is the memory or emotion behind a place that makes it memorable in either a good way or a bad way.

As mentioned in one of my other posts, Steilacoom has played a significant role in my life the past two years.  Since I am about to move to Arizona I have been reminiscent of all the wonderful memories I have made here.  This internal dialogue is what I wanted to explore in this project.

I chose to use a APO flat-rate box as the basis of my project because of my husband leaving me in Steilacoom while he was deployed to Iraq for a little over a year.  I got to know the postwoman of Steilacoom a fare amount due to how many packages I sent.  On the address label there is my address of Steilacoom listed as well as my new address in Arizona.  If you were to open the box, the addresses would be separated much like I am being separated from Steilacoom to go to Arizona.

On one side of the box there is Steilacoom depicted in tissue paper and Arizona is on the other side.  I chose decoupage of tissue paper because you have to physically rip the material to create color, texture, and form.  I unwilling have to move to Arizona so I am  consider myself to be ripped from this place I have grown to love.

On the Steilacoom side I place a lock and on the Arizona a door knob.  The lock is a literal interpretation of the memories that will be locked in my mind of Steilacoom.  With the move I can no longer add any memories either--so the city is locked to me.  The door knob on the Arizona side is for the door that is opening in Arizona which may be filled with good memories or possible bad-- Either way it will be filled.

If you were to lift the box you would fill how uneven in weight the box is.  On the Steilacoom side there is roughly 25 pounds of plaster signifying the "weight" I have given to Steilacoom.  If you were to look through the key hole on the Arizona side you would see that side of the box empty, filled with nothing.  I have yet to make memories there and have no idea what to expect so the emptiness conveys the uncertainty and the potential for loneliness.

I am really happy with how the project turned out.  It has been very therapeutic for me to examine my subconcious of the emotions and fear it has for the huge change in my life.

The sunset of my mind

For my wet medium I chose to draw a sunset of my mind.  This sunset is perhaps beautiful but I wonder if I would actually like to be there to see this sunset.  To me it seems hot and intrusive.  There is no boundary to the land which is lonely and expansive. I chose to cut my paper into a circle symbolizing the limitless boundaries of not only the land but the sun as well.

 I really enjoyed using oil pastels for this piece.  I liked pushing the blending of the medium and found the long horizontal strokes relaxing to execute.