D. ABOVE & BELOW WITHIN & WITHOUT 2008
The ritualized job ethic of the oil patch corresponded to our ritualized artistic work and the natural forms that captured our imaginations corresponded to the mechanical implements- and both were being taken for granted.
After creating a large drawing of a magnolia seedpod we focused on a water tower rising like a giant mechanical plant out of the ground. We imagined it as a large tree that instead of sucking nutrients from the ground distributed sustenance to a community through its root-like plumbing. The image of intricate underground plumbing enticed us to consider the almost invisible, oral histories and ancestral, family ties that connect the people of this area.
We extended this idea when a cedar waxwing was killed by flying into a window of our studio. This event moved us to reflect on flight and the associated rituals connected with the space program as well as the incredible technological forms dwarfing the human scale.
