Project information

• Category: Traditioanl
• Project date: 2009

This show featured two series of work that I had completed from 2007 until 2009. The first is the …and Plastic series and the second is the Obsolete: Extinct Animals series. The …and Plastic series combines imagery of organic objects paired with plastic. I use the plastic as a metaphor to symbolize the industrial/consumerist footprint that humans have left on the Earth. I chose plastic because it never completely biodegrades. It will never enter back into the life cycle, at least, not until an organism learns to digest it. I created this pairing of objects in order to attempt to generate a dialog with viewers regarding our throw-away culture and the impact that it has on our environment. The Obsolete: Extinct Animals series features various animals that are now extinct. All of the animals featured are extinct due to human interaction except for the cave lion. I wanted to include one species that was not destroyed by our involvement. Because the drawings are rendered by making marks with graphite on a charcoal background, the composition changes as the viewer moves around the works. In one position the graphite lines seem almost white, but in another they fade out and become blurry. This visual phenomenon correlates with the conceptual, in that the existence and non-existence of these creatures only becomes completely apparent with some effort.