Research: Beneath the Surface

Going into this project I admit I wasn't sure of what I wanted to convey. Being a (more or less) conceptual artist I wanted to be able to say something with what I was to be working on, but how insightful can a landscape be? After all from what I've seen from Monet and Van Gogh, they are just pretty colors and seemingly nothing more, right? Wrong, they helped to start a new wave of thinking, though I am not at all trying to do something that has never been done before, I would just like to show my take on certain topics. So after giving some thought to what a landscape can be I decided to follow a theme. That theme is looking Beneath the Surface.


After brainstorming for an object/image with my own and several other minds, I was reminded of something I hadn't seen for a long time, yet something in its own right very inspirational. The Body Works exhibit, seemed to be something perfect. The image seen is from this highly specified collection of plasticised human bodies; the image in particular that I am using is of a pregnant woman and her unborn child. The connection I thought is perfect, within this world we are all connected to our surroundings and our surrounding to us. A landscape is also something seen but comes from something unseen, it can also give and take life; just like the mother and her child.



Originally the location that I wanted to use was to be a section of the expansive underground river system in Mexico. This river system was the only source of fresh water within the area, which gives life to not only the dense forest in the area, but also gave life to the Mayan civilization. Unfortunately due to software restraints i decided to use Herkimer, an area in upstate New York. It is best known for the cave system that was discovered by a farmer. This discovery was able to bring in great revenue for the town, providing for a number of families.