Jennifer Whalen-Shaw
jwhalenshaw@gmail.com
Carbondale, Illinois
jwhalenshaw@gmail.com
Carbondale, Illinois
Artist Statement:
The Cut Landscape Series visually explores
themes of eco-tourism, specifically the
thought that nature is a people-less place. *
Each piece begins with an appropriated
photograph of a nature experience, such as
a trip to a national park. All “manmade”
objects and people are then physically cut
from the image and in those spaces the
“natural” landscape is painted in a
photorealistic manner. The remaining
image is one of a banal landscape where
the subtle influences of mankind remain
through shadows, tended grounds, and
floating animals. This series is not intended
to suggest that humans can or should be
removed from the landscape, but rather
seeks to explore the many subtle and
complex interactions between humans and
the environment. In this series, as in all of
my work, I am consistently interested in
exploring the cyclical relationship between
human interactions with nature and human
representations of nature. It is important to
examine these representations of nature
because they are both reflect and influence a
general cultural relationship to wilderness,
nature and the environments in which we
live.
* The environmental historian William Cronon
asserts in his essay, “The Trouble with Wilderness,”
that one key component to the current concept of
wilderness is a lack of people inhabiting the space.
The Cut Landscape Series visually explores
themes of eco-tourism, specifically the
thought that nature is a people-less place. *
Each piece begins with an appropriated
photograph of a nature experience, such as
a trip to a national park. All “manmade”
objects and people are then physically cut
from the image and in those spaces the
“natural” landscape is painted in a
photorealistic manner. The remaining
image is one of a banal landscape where
the subtle influences of mankind remain
through shadows, tended grounds, and
floating animals. This series is not intended
to suggest that humans can or should be
removed from the landscape, but rather
seeks to explore the many subtle and
complex interactions between humans and
the environment. In this series, as in all of
my work, I am consistently interested in
exploring the cyclical relationship between
human interactions with nature and human
representations of nature. It is important to
examine these representations of nature
because they are both reflect and influence a
general cultural relationship to wilderness,
nature and the environments in which we
live.
* The environmental historian William Cronon
asserts in his essay, “The Trouble with Wilderness,”
that one key component to the current concept of
wilderness is a lack of people inhabiting the space.
| Trinity National Forest, California. Digital photograph, watercolor, paper, wood. 6 x 9 x 1 inches. |
| Detail of Trinity National Forest, California |
| San Juan, Puerto Rico. Digital photograph, watercolor, paper, wood 9 x 6 x 1 inches |
| Detail of San Juan, Puerto Rico |
| San Pedro, California. Digital photograph, watercolor, paper, wood 18 x 6 x 1 inches (diptych) |
| Detail of San Pedro, California |