Tracks

I spent this summer up in Vermont working as a camp counselor. Kind of the usual for these last few years. I've always been interested in wilderness survival and this summer I took it to a new level. I worked to expand my awareness of nature and my awareness of myself and my limits. Ok so maybe I was reading a bit too much Tom Brown, but I gained a lot of new insight into myself and nature. I had a sort of life changing experience where I spent a night sleeping under a tree and in a pile of leaves through a severe thunderstorm. After that I thought I was gonna hitch hike across the country because I wanted to spend more time in the woods. After some thinking I decided to just move to Asheville NC, while this isn't as intense as hitch hiking I think I may actually have more opportunities to play in the woods and definitely get to know one area better. With the increase in my awareness of nature I grew a fascination with tracks and signs. Finding pushed down grass where deer had beaded down and then some scat became a thrill. seeing sticks displaced or leaves pushed where something had been evoke a sense of awe at the mystery of nature. I began to be fascinated by the things left behind and that which left them.
I see my paintings as tracks of my presence, as traces of what I've left behind. They show the tracks of my brushes pallet knives and razors. But what have others left behind, what mysteries can I find of animals and people and they're interaction in an urban environment. I hope that once I move to Asheville I can begin to incorporate traces and tracks of people and animals into my art to show the intersection between myself and the environment I find myself in. How can a found object move me to create, how can one trace move me to create new traces new images new work. I hope to allow my art to intersect with all that is around me and allow all that is around me to intersect with my art to produce a unified expression of self and place.