Our society has reached its pinnacle. We are the most powerful country the world has ever seen. We are invincible- or so we thought. The last 50 years have led our culture to believe that nothing bad can happen to us. We were all fooled. The British Empire, the Romans, the Greeks before them, the Egyptians, Mesopotamians, Babylonians before them. They all believed they were It. They were the pinnacle of their own times. Until powers shift, upheavals, overthrows and wars leave ruins in their wake. The Incas at Machu Picchu, Mayan Temples of the Yucatan, The Hanging Gardens of Babylon; all abandoned by the inhabitants who so carefully constructed their walls and maintained their cities. We are next. Surely, we cannot continue forever.
In this new collection of work I express a belief that all that we have, all we have built, and all that we see around us will vanish. I see a landscape of empty cities. Abandoned buildings crumbling under years of war, disaster or neglect. Unrecognizable structures; shambles of their former selves. Skyscraper skeletons reach for their forgotten purpose. The nature around us creeping in and reclaiming that which was once Hers. These scenes are abstract, invented landscapes on which my vision has been built.
The medium I use is inherent in the success of the pieces. I utilize many layering techniques throughout the process. These layers will, at times, completely cover a pre-existing element; sometimes simply alter a color, shape or texture. This to me is much like the way city infrastructures are constructed. We will build a state of the art condo high-rise next to a hundred year old church. Similarly, many modern cities have been built on top of destroyed ruins of ancient cities. There is destruction followed by new development and discovery. Many of the colors I choose to use are obvious Earthtones. Others I have chosen to specifically counter act the safety of monochromatic browns and yellows with a purple or a blue or pink. S
