Landscape

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As I have been researching and questioning the effects of the image of nature since 17 century romantic landscape paintings. This sketch is based from looking at Albert Bierstadt's 1868 "Among the Sierra Nevada". 

 

A large part of my process is adopting the tactics of commercialized nature. By taking the time to draw a landscape, I hoped to learn what makers, artists, photographers, videographers, writers, entrepreneurs and all other participants of simulation gain from recreating the nonexistent. 

The Culture of Nature: North American Landscape from Disney to the Exxon Valdez

Alexander Wilson's The Culture of Nature is highly influential to my practice. Wilson is an American born Canadian settled landscape designer, writer, teacher, activist. Below I have listed some useful quotes from the book that have been influential on myself.

 

 "There are many natures." p.12

"It's no accident that industrial agriculture, the spread of suburbs, and the growth of mass tourism all coincided in the mid-twentieth century." p.22

"For one thing, the idea of nature as an untrammelled refuge is most attractive to cultures situated at some distance from the rural world, and whose values tend to rest on a rigid distinction between the human and non-human. Utopias, after all, are culturally specific." p.27

"The speeding car is a metaphor for progress. It is always moving ahead-although the effect is the opposite, as if the landscape were moving past us, into the inconsequential shadows of history. In this very limited respect, time has replaced space as the predominant way our experience of the world is organized." p.34 

  

Next Nature Essay: Nature is an Agreement by Tracy Metz

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For a long time I have been wrestling with the idea of Nature. Similar to the idea of art, it seems foolish to try to define the boundaries of what it is and is not. Sometimes it is easy to look back on both nature and art and see what it used to be, but it is almost impossible to define today. I plan to write a series of reflections on this question. Today I am writing in response to an essay in Next Nature by Tracy Metz. 

The entire book is grounded on the idea that nature is more than culture's idea of wilderness. The book identifies the human interference with the natural world that we are ourselves a part of. Starting from this building block Tracy Metz brings up a few excellent points.

The title "Nature is an Agreement" points out that the fictional existence of nature is an idea or an image that we create. It is other than us, controlled by us, but yet dangerous. Nature is what we agree nature is.

 

 

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We manage to forget that we have never left this idea that we call nature. We consider it a distant and exotic place to avoid the guilt of our surroundings.

Metz identifies the next nature to be a virtual one. The image is no longer what we travel to, but one that travels to us. It's on tv, radio, and at the store. The concept that we have of nature is market of fictional places and virtual memories.

New City, New Studio

I moved from Nashville to Raleigh, North Carolina this month. And although I will miss the community and location that came with my old studio, I am excited about my new set up. 

Circuit Bender's Ball Install

I am excited to be a part of  the Circuit Bender's Ball this weekend. With the huge help of Tony Youngblood and Megan Kelley I will be showing three works from my Nothing is Unnatural body of work. Everyone should check out CBB at Fort Houston this weekend.

Saving the Lost

Saving the Lost

IT'S AS REAL AS YOU MAKE IT

IT'S AS REAL AS YOU MAKE IT

Scaped

Scaped

OpryLAND

Here's a sneak preview of the new work that will be in Reconditioned Terrain next month:

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The piece is a sculpture that sits on the floor with a video display on the inside. The footage in the video was all recorded at the Opryland Hotel. Below is the video.