Punk Mountain
Reimagine a world that has no boundaries. They are man made constructs. Landscape painting and photography were once used to romanticize and politicize notions of manifest destiny to inspire people to move out west. Users of social media share significant similarities. They post photos that are manipulated to create the best images to push personal and societal narratives. I am interested in what is the best image and if it can be created or captured. My collages explore the western landscape with images that are pulled from various locations to become the idealized vistas. Realism mixes with abstraction to create tension between the physical and intellectual experience of space. A place where memory and reality collide.
Pioneer Project
The one hundredth meridian historically marked the beginning of the West. The point where the frontier began and society ended. This invisible line signified the start of the endless landscape one filled with unlimited possibilities, resources and opportunities. In this series “Pioneer Project”, the work examines the European exploration of the West through a female perspective and in doing so creates a fictional narrative. Objects found in historical institutions are reexamined and reinterpreted. Landscape paintings once used to romanticize and to politicize notions of manifest destiny, are now recreated. They are moments in time captured for posterity. In the time of climate crises these idealized landscapes may present to future viewers a skewed version of past environments.
One aspect of western expansion was the desire to create a homestead. Artifacts of architecture and craft tells stories of handiwork and craftsmanship. In this project aspects of needlepoint sampler are revisited. “Home Sweet Home” is transformed using excerpts from Cormac McCarthy novels. The McCarthy quotes are feminized and edited to be suggestive phrasing rather than declarative.
Presented with many historical narratives are portraits of protagonists. Here are females portrayed as the explorers and the documentarians. They are of different races and ethnicities, a mix of different times and influences. The women are indicative of the cross pollination of appropriated cultures and spiritualism. They represent the bravery of all who venture in to the unknown to create a better life. We are all pioneers.