Title
Creation Date
2018
Preview
Medium
charcoal on digital print
Description
Dimensions: 13 x 19 inches
This piece is part of a larger work entitled Flourishing.
Rights
© Maira Montes, 2018. Photo Credit: Allison Corona.
Exhibit Images
Keywords
trees, nature, landscapes, man-made, plants, change
Artist Statement
As a growing city, country, and world we change our surroundings for our needs. Although the changes seem to happen gradually, they impact our world greatly. What if we could gradually see the change from a cityscape back to a landscape?
In the first image we start with a blue sky that is beginning to cloud-up. This symbolizes that when we imagine a growing city we think it’s good. As the images go on, they are all overcast days showing that it impacts our world in negative ways. These are all images of Boise. We see that the buildings seem to encapsulate us when we walk between them. They are so encapsulating that they almost give a claustrophobic feeling. We have seen so many buildings go up, but one can only wonder what this area used to look like before people settled, or what it could look like without any buildings.
The colored image symbolizes that that part of the photograph is real life and what we are surrounded with now. While the drawing in charcoal symbolizes the yearning for or wish of those things to be there. The charcoal is something natural, like the subject of the drawings, while the image is digital and man-made like the parts that slowly fade away.
These buildings slowly fade away because they slowly come to life when being built, but also disappear slowly when no longer in use or are abandoned. The transition from cityscape to landscape is gradual because when we no longer maintain what we’ve built, nature slowly starts taking over again, growing through what’s there.
This piece should speak volumes on how much we impact our planet, although it’s so clear with all our surroundings. We are lucky to reside in a location, like Boise, that has the city, but also is within close proximity to other locations in which we can go enjoy Mother Nature. We are a growing city. And the more we grow, the more we will lose these things.