Around the Coyote Winter Art Festival

These are two works that are going to be at the Around the Coyote Winter Art Festival (http://www.aroundthecoyote.org/festivals/2007_winter/) happening this coming weekend (Feb 8-11th). The top is a painting called Angry Red Planet and the bottom is a drawing I did after sketches I did sitting in the park one day. All the work I did for the show deals with these map-like landscapes. I will post more images when I have them.

I am fascinated by our need to organize information and label in order to comprehend the world. The paintings and drawings I am currently working on play with ambiguity and explores that fascination. The map-like images depict an unidentified place, an imaginary landscape that is known only to me. It is not clear what the viewer is looking at specifically, yet the maze of lines and color evoke definite map-like qualities. Because they are not real geographies, these fabricated environments—which are informed by maps and topographical images—invite viewers to make their own assumptions and attach their own classifications. Often my images overlay the organic maps with more geometrical city skylines that are in turn suggestive of this conflict. It is my hope that in questioning the authenticity of my images as actual maps, one becomes more mindful of the power we give other maps and the labels we attach to such images.

(I am not sure what happened to the images for this post. I will try to repost them this weekend. Weird!)