my personal belief, philosophy, and cultural significance

It's been quite a while since I posted.

I'm sure you don't want apologies or reasons why,

so I'll just get right to it.

The following is a little paper I wrote for class.
It's and artist statement of sorts.

Just thought I'd share.

Plants and nature have always been a part of my life.  My father had masses of plants in the house and he and my mother grew things in the yard.  I remember his failed attempts at a vegetable garden because our yard didn't receive enough sunlight.  As a family, we would frequently go for hikes in the woods where we would check out new plants, critters, and bugs.

My love for plants grew after I moved into my own place.  I had a plethora of things in pots that I took care of.  This love became an obsession after we bought our house four years ago.  The large yard has become my laboratory for trying new things and a place to nurture my “collection”.  As with making art, the process involved in gardening has it’s own attraction.  I like nothing better than to spend hours out there pulling weeds, trimming plants, and finding new growth. The garden has provided me with a firsthand look at how things grow, reproduce, and regenerate or die.

I believe that the earth is our responsibility as humans.  From the plants that grow from its dirt to the creatures that live here, it is our duty to protect them.  They need protection from us.  I believe there is a natural order to things; some species are meant to die out due to various genetic weaknesses.  It is only natural that weaker varieties would fall to the wayside to make room for the stronger. That being said, it is not up to us as a people to cause this to happen.  We are quickly multiplying as a race and we are taking over the far corners of the earth.  At some point we will extinguish our resources, including the plants and creatures that allow us to survive here on this planet.  I believe that we think we need tall buildings, asphalt parking lots, and 24 hour grocery stores to survive when in fact what we need is more people growing their own food, more trees and vegetation being planted.

We spend so much time in our air-conditioned homes, in our air-conditioned cars, on the way to other air-conditioned buildings.  For the most part, the natural world is ignored.  It’s plowed over to make way for new construction.  Trees are cut down to build more roads.  Perfectly manicured lawns take the place of indigenous plants. Kids don’t play outside like they used to.  People exercise in buildings, on machines, that mimic outdoor activity.

Hundreds of years ago, we were much more connected to our natural surroundings.  Many people grew their own food, raised their own livestock.  Or, at the very least, had easy access to nearby farms where they could acquire these things.  Now we rely on huge companies to truck in our food from far away places.  Some of the food we eat is so highly processed, its form is far from how it originated.  We have become so dependent on these huge companies that we as a people have lost the important skills needed to survive on our own.  Most people know nothing of growing their food, how to plant a seed and take care of it until fruition.  We have lost the power of self-reliance. 

I feel that by creating sculpture in the image of natural forms, I can draw attention to the outside world.  The materials and forms that I discover in the natural world inspire me.  Things like seedpods, plant structures, decaying organic material are all sources of ideas and materials to use in my art.  The long skinny seedpod of the mandevilla vine is something that I’d like to further explore.  I created pods from cardboard tubes and ornamental grass plumes and was somewhat happy with the result.  I want to try making them much larger.  If they were 8, even 10, feet tall, I think they’d gain much more attraction.  What I want to do is have my sculpture gain attention.  The natural world needs more people to pay attention and to see what is really going on.  I would like to have my work in a garden setting but I’m thinking the type of people I need to attract don’t frequent gardens.  If my work was on display where one wouldn’t expect to see it, then I might be able to affect more people with my ideas. 

By focusing people’s attention to what has been forgotten, perhaps I have the ability to influence a change.  I am so enamored with these aspects, and I want others to see the importance of studying the natural world and responsibly utilizing it for our survival as opposed to raping it for our gluttony.