suburban narratives

Sleeping Mother oil on canvas

Paved the way, oil painting, 2002

Mountain Lion Gets Death For Acting Like Animal, Oil Painting, 2002

Why did the coyote cross the road?, oil painting, 2002

detail

A delicate feather

Up above the birds flew by

a delicate feather fell from the sky

 drifting gently to the ground

Too soft and pretty to make a sound

Art VULUPS

The long name is Art as a Vehicle to Understand Land Use Planning and Sustainability, and is a unique collaboration between artists and urban planners. Each artist/planner team   explored a topic to conceptualize for greater public understanding. I was pleased to be working with Grace Williams from the March Joint Powers Authority on the topic of jobs and housing balance. It got me thinking about my own commute to work from Riverside to Nuevo, and what I would rather do with the time spent on the road in addition to the guilt I feel environmentally speaking. It brings peace of mind and time to enjoy life when work is close to home. A balance in jobs and housing is a balance for not only communities as a whole, but also for the residents of those communities. And its better for the environment. Commuting is polluting and all that jazz! If the topic is interesting to you there is a dialogue about the project in more detail here at the Art VULUPS website. Here are a few pictures of our project. We were inspired by the idea of "more time to play", and wanted to use an old airplane propellor (march air force base reference), and create a merry-go-round (what people often refer to the chaos of working/life cycle as). As this was not possible to realize (YET!), I designed a board with a fan installed. The fan represents the fresher air from less pollution, and when it is turned on it becomes a mandala. The blended colors become symbolic of the oneness of your living and working life. A mandala represents being balanced, finding harmony. Visit the Art VULUPS website to check out all of the amazing interpretations by other artist/planner teams, there will be more to come from the program too -I'll keep you posted :)