CULTURAL LANDSCAPES

Upon a visit to France during the heat wave of 2003, I began to realize that the land I had so longed to visit possessed very similar geography to that of my own residence in South Western Ontario.  With each new encounter, my romantic notions of France began to fade, helping me realize how interconneced our world has become. 

Combining iconography acquired from the media with journal writings and photos, these extremely layered canvases began with sepia painted pastoral scenes of French foliage to visualize the romantic ideal I had had of the French countryside prior to my visit.  To communicate how we are all connected in a media driven world, I acquired the daily newspapers from the 24 days that I was away and worked with the headlines and images that served to document observations about globalism I had been making while abroad. This information was then juxtaposed on top of the impressionistic landscapes to speak to the rhizomatic nature of our landscapes.   The black bars scratched into with journal writings share how I was often subconsciously aware or consequently affected by events, issues, emotions, and reactions, which were taking place half way across the world.  The small areas of stitching, speak to how we cannot separate the romantic, from the realistic or reflective landscapes we encounter, as experiences are inherently layered: Perceived, political and personal all at once.