There is
a song named Big Yellow Taxi that was written in the 70s about a big parking
lot that took up a lot of space on an island in Hawaii. Among the paradise of
crystal blue water and foggy green mountains there was this huge eye sore in
place of what could otherwise be another part of paradise. The lyrics, which
resonated in my head throughout the project, read as follows:
Don't it
always seem to go
That you
don't know what you've got
Till
it's gone
They
paved paradise
And put
up a parking lot
To hear
the full song:
This
idea of tearing down nature for the sake of building a money-grabbing building
like a parking lot, a hotel, or even a mall is one that fascinates me. As a
whole, we tend to value the thrill of the “great outdoors” and the idea of
exploration of the unknown, but we don’t as easily realize that all that could
be closer than ever.
An even
greater problem with this is that we are doing so much harm to the other
animals that live on this planet. When an ecosystem is altered by human
activities, whether they are in the form of farming, oil extraction, or
commercial development, it can no longer support the animals and plants that inhabit
it. The balance of these locations is thrown off so much that they can no
longer provide the nutrients and basic necessities— water, food, and shelter—
and the wildlife enters in which their species is at danger of going extinct.
The more we expand, the fewer places left that can provide a home for wildlife.
The
links above provide more insight into the problem, including lists and
descriptions of the animals at risk of extinction due to deforestation. We
trade in vital producers of oxygen for the comfort of having a nearby mall or
another apartment complex.
An artist
whose work I looked at closely for this project is Renee van der Stelt (http://www.reneevanderstelt.com/about.html)
who works by cutting into paper and uses light and shadow to render sculptural
and organic representations of maps and directionality of natural phenomena.
Her website describes her work as having “drawings not only as a noun (thing)
but also as a verb (action or process)”. Her drawings are
produced by cutting or repeatedly puncturing the surface of the paper, which
results in images and forms that are reminiscent of the mapping of topographic
space. Her use of light and placement help to further the image and push
it to “reveal biases and limitations of how space is often considered”.
For my drawing, I decided to cut into
paper, going through the process of removing and taking away, rather than
adding, in order to represent the subtractive process of expansion. It was
something different, that I had not tried before, but it felt like it was the
best way to represent my idea, not just in subject matter but through process
as well. The image reads from left to right, showing the decomposition of nature into a cityscape.
I have never had what I like to call a “delicate touch,”
meaning that my mark making, whether that be drawn, painted, or in this case
cut onto a surface, is very natural and often times abrupt and rough. This is a
style that characterizes my work and this one is not exempt. If a closer look
is taken when observing the images, the rough edges and moments where the paper
is hanging on for dear life are evident. However, I did not try to fight it, I
did not try to perfect or go back over these moments because like nature which
takes its own course, I allowed my hands to do the work as quickly as my mind
was processing the ideas. I allowed for the movements to be naturally occurring
and let the pieces fall where they will. Going through and
having my marks be permanent and not having the option of undoing a mistake
helped set a more intentional and decisive mindset. Any cut that I made for
better or worse became a part of my drawing, taking away from the canvas that
was the paper and existing as a negative space.
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