Paintings - Works on Paper - Monotypes - Studio

Endangered Lands:

Endangered Landscapes, is a series of new paintings, prints and works on paper that were

produced from a number of aerial photographs taken of the southeastern Louisiana coastline.

During the summer of 2007, I traveled and resided in Louisiana with the research support from

the University of Minnesota. While in residence I was able to research and educate myself on

the growing problem of coastal erosion and wetland loss that is affecting Louisiana.

Louisiana’s coastline is currently disappearing at a rate of 10.3 sq miles a year. Between 1990

and 2000, wetland loss was 24 square miles per year, which was equivalent to one football

field lost every 38 minutes. (Barras et al. 2003).

My fieldwork encompassed viewing these at risk areas of land, wetlands and coast from a

number of different perspectives and documenting them through digital photographs and

sketchbook drawings. I found that the images that were taken from the air surveys to be the

most compelling. From the air I could fully comprehend the vast scale of the problem. It also

influenced the direction of my artwork by allowing me to see the delicate relationship

between land and water and the areas that function in between. These experiences gave me

an understanding of coastal wetland lost and it’s implications of the environment and the

unique culture that makes up southern Louisiana.

My studio work followed for a short period in Lafayette, La then continued in Minneapolis, MN

through a research fellowship with the Institute for Advance Study, at the University of

Minnesota. It was through my daily commute to my studio that I would cross the Mississippi

and meditate on the aerial images I took during the summer and the problems that face the

southern region of Louisiana.

In the studio I would work from the digital photographs, which served as a catalyst for each

painting. At some point in my process I would take the painting past the original photograph

through the loose application of paint. Through my painting process I would create land then

take it away through the application of water. It became a visual relationship between land

and water as positive and negative space. I also continued to take creative liberties in the

palette used in each painting.

I see Endangered Landscapes, as a body of work that will create environmental awareness to

Louisiana’s coastal erosion problem. My main goal is to educate the viewer on the

vulnerability of the land that surrounds Louisiana. It is my intention that the viewer connects

with this aspect of this new body of work.