ARTIST STATEMENT
Our memories begin in a place, a space marked for a specific moment that can never be repeated. We mark these memories with specific placards, symbols or events that can later return the meaning. The art of topography maps out these memories in specific forms of the physical structure of a place. Within each map, there is a reflection while also a position in which to venture forward.
My previous work served as a visual topography for the personal memories of a space once encountered. They map the structures of the landscape while also connecting to the visceral meaning of a moment that cannot be repeated but serve as a guide for new moments to come. These visual topographic landscapes grant a lens from afar to a microcosmic place in time. They connect our human encounters with the spaces we inhabit and grant links for decisions made in reflection of our memories. My inspiration came from topographic maps, memories on the trail and encounters with creativity in the classroom as an art teacher. Abstracting symbology from topographic maps and natural formations, I use printmaking techniques of monoprinting, linoleum carving screen printing to document a visual topographic memory.
I have been recently interested in investigating female bodies in landscape. As a trail runner, I spend hours out in the open landscape of the Bay Area. The mystical union of landscape and body merges into a unique experience that both empowers the body and humbles the soul. The encounter with landscape offers a form of power for the female body to be moving throughout a space of freedom without expectations or requirements. There is a movement that flows from the landscape, mirroring the female body. Phases of seasons and universality reflect the stages of femalehood and the cycles of humanity. While landscape graciously empowers, the spiritual nature also reminds humanity of our truly small existence. It is the landscape that guides our bodies within it and offers us with the mystical wisdom of its history that each element holds. There is a greater space that landscape holds of past and present and the witness of such wonder should leave our bodies with a great honoring to that experience. I desire to reveal these personal moments of my body in landscape in more universal tone to be able to speak to the overarching power that landscape holds. I want to continue to explore methods of monoprinting and bookmaking during this residency in order to reach a deeper understanding of these concepts.
