Western Landscape Tradition

2/27/2017

The Icons of the West are natural objects.
Our ruins are not marble temples or crumbling cathedrals but wind etched sandstone, glacier carved granite, and deep river canyons.
The skulls and bones of the animals which populate this land are our relics: markers and signifiers of stories now past.
Special landforms are our holy sites and pilgrimage destinations.
The ancient Cedar, Fir, Pine are our elders. Their bodies hold wisdom collected over millennia.

I look to the land of the Western United States and I can't not see layers of experiences bound to the land. Maybe the strive to make something completely new and original is not just futile but irresponsible. When making art, one must look at what has come before. We must acknowledge our lives do not exist in a vacuum of brash individualism. No one started from nothing; our lives are not our own.

I look to respond to the wild places of the PNW and IMW and also others' responses and experiences with the same land and natural objects. I saw my path as a line: a single trajectory. Now I think the way forward isn't just forward, but backwards, and to my sides. I look to build a network rather than a single trail.