Prevailing Aspect

This drawing is part of an exhibition that I held at The AVA called "Ghostscapes".Latest Drawings, Ghostscapes 

In examining the concept of belonging, I began by looking at the indigenous landscapes that surround me. Working with familiar local scenes I tried to imagine the view untouched by human hand, drawing the landscape as it would have existed before any human additions were made to it. Fascinated by what this original landscape might have looked like, I researched historical photographs which revealed when the first human-made structures were built and what they looked like. Using these pictures and working off current photographs, I have either layered these structures onto the richness of the charcoal landscape using coloured or white chalk or I’ve made the marks by erasing and pulling charcoal off of the paper.  By playing with, adding to, and removing from these concrete representations I am making them less permanent and powerful; more ephemeral and fleeting. I want the chalk or the erasing to seem like a latticework, a pattern on the landscape which in some cases threatens to choke the ground below it, as it covers so much of the space.

Charcoal is a strong dramatic medium, steadfast and clear. I see nature as multidimensional and enduring. For me, the rocks and plants surpass human development. Despite the chokehold of the built environment, nature survives. The lines used to draw the buildings are one dimensional and changeable. The natural landscape was here long before any structures were built on it and it will continue to remain the same as buildings and people come and go. The drawings are a palimpsest of these landscapes, the scene reused and altered but still showing traces of its earlier form, the structures effacing the natural setting.