Ruins

As I delve deeper into this idea of nature reclaiming the remnants of human settlements I begin to think about historical examples. In both eastern and western hemispheres, civilizations have flourished and failed leaving behind what they had built; today we see them in a state far removed from its original façade. The Maya and Inca of South America bring more of a mysterious look to their ruins. The simple and incredible architecture lends more to visual interest than the Egyptian pyramids and their environment in the jungle eludes more to reclaiming. However there is the other side of the world. Recently in Iraq, there has been a massive drought and because of this drought, the water level of the Euphrates river has dropped revealing ruins. Let’s see where this takes me.

Nature reclaims it

Its amazing how nature seems to effortlessly reclaim most of its resources back from us. Whether it is through corrosion or decomposition, nature finds a way to reclaim. It may take several years but ultimately nature will take back what belongs to it. Over the past year the History channel has been playing a show called life after people showing what would happen to earth if people just vanished and all the stuff we built is left behind. The affects of decomposition is what im going to look for. The way things look when they are being taken back.

I like the way this is turning out...

In the past week I’ve played with changing my way of making deteriorated looking scenes. Maybe its time to explore some more into this aesthetic of a forsaken or wasteland like scene. Ill be looking at monolithic structures for guidance and to nature and its ability to reclaim for a path to follow. It’s a new direction for me inspired by the push my professor gave me the week before for a piece that “broke the frame/rim”. Ill give it a try on a whole new level.

A change in direction?

So I’m beginning to break past this barrier I created for myself. The sources I’ve been looking at were of a specific thing (engine blades). But I’m beginning to focus now on the whole machine itself.. the way it interacts with the surface or thrown piece it will go on. So I’m looking for images of crashed aircraft and I run into a fan favorite of Yoda’s home planet and Luke Skywalker’s plane in the swamp. So that’s when I decided to make a scene similar to that with one of my pieces. Its amazing that an insignificant scene like that in a movie can inspire the mind of an artist working in a totally different medium.

machines

In my search for the perfect imitation I began to realize that my work was heavily reliant on process. The source imagery is beginning to dictate the way my work is going to look in the end. I think that ill look more into the busted piece of machinery. A fine tuned machine that has been corroded or been damaged in some way. The works of Steven Montgomery have triggered ideas that I have yet to figure out the technical issues with but I’m excited to continue this exploration into a more complex industrialized aesthetic I’ve chosen to follow.