Where am I?

In a previous post, I wrote about trying to find personal connection with my work, infusing my experience into its content. I decided that it should be my top priority this semester. Last month, I began keeping a journal of memories associated with specific landscapes or interactions with nature. It didn't take long to realize that my own childhood backyard was full of potential possibilities for work. I resolved to limit my subject to imagery from childhood memories and stick to that for a while and see what develops.

In reading about landscape studies and the history of gardens, I’ve uncovered ideas about landscapes having the ability to connect people through nostalgia and shared experience. I’m also interested in the importance of gardens throughout history as an extension of the household, source for food and medicine, tool for maintaining family culture and traditions, and  the role of women as caretakers of the garden and guardians of family and its traditions. I think these concepts are very specific but still in line with the general direction I envisioned for my work which was to discuss human connection with landscape and nature.

For this series of sand work, I created patterns from memory rather than using reference images such as maps or photographs. I created a pattern inspired by a landscape that has changed a lot over time and no longer exists the way I remember it.  Additionally, I began to incorporate sand I collected rather than purchased and use ground rice to add a different texture and visual ambiguity. I spent a lot of time on the photo documentation, shooting from various points of view and distances to reveal the piece through a series of image details.