A Landscape Reclaimed

Blue Sky, 2013, 30x38cm,  (private collection)

Sky Scrapers Walking #2, 76x25cm, 2013

HWY 302 to Richer, 76x25cm 2013 (private collection)

Locus Evolution, 152x76cm, 2011

Panorama Mingle, 25.5x35cm, 2011, (private collection)

Rat River Bend, 25.5x25.5cm 2011

Tool Shed, 76x25, 2009, (private collection)

A Landscape Reclaimed, 152x76cm, 2009 (private collection)

Regenerate Space, 152x76cm, 2009

Reliving Structures, 152x76cm, 2009

Yarrow and Flax, 25.5x25.5cm, 2011

Ross Structural Abandonment, 152x76cm, 2009

Ste. Gen. Marsh Road, 91x15cm, 2009

Synthetic Sward, 76x38cm, 2009

Tool Shed, 76x25cm, 2009 (private collection)

The Rookery, 91x30cm, 2009

Empty Cradle, 152x76cm, 2008

Ross Slow Burn, 152x25cm, 2007, (private collection)

Entropy to Evolution: A Landscape Reclaimed is based on actual and imagined environments in which the topography is restless as it decomposes. My intent is to depict natural and cultural spaces enmeshed in a state of flux. I compose the landscape, its habitats and inhabitants as if in the process of recombining and co-constructing, suggesting an intimate and deeply interconnected realm.

I am inspired by the evolution of spaces impacted by human endeavor and then abandoned. Wherever built environments are, pre-existing flora and fauna have either been displaced or destroyed and replaced by human-made structures and objects. Once these sites and structures are abandoned natural re-growth reclaims the landscape. As nature reasserts itself the lines between what is nature made and what is human made become blurred.

As human-made objects and spaces are enveloped in natural re-growth, they create new spaces that combine both: neither pristine nature nor cultural landscapes. Rather they represent a state of harmonious decline and re-growth. On one level I am captivated by the beauty of these spaces, on another I am fascinated by their entropic decay and evolution into something new. Entropy tangles and erodes the contours of the landforms and the built environment; it blurs distinguishing lines between interior and exterior, nature and culture, redefining these spaces as other than natural or human.