Place Project

The central Minnesota area has been a significant inspiration to my artwork in general. Within this location, there is an abundance of lakes and woodlands with flourishing ecosystems. A wealth of plants, animals, and other organisms thrive, from which I gain most of the subject matter for my work. These natural surroundings and an appreciation for wildlife have always been a value in my family; so much to the point that within the yards of my family members, there is an imitation of these organisms. Kitsch garden décor overtakes the yards of most of the homes in the area. It is a cultural norm for people to decorate their gardens and yards with an abundance of mass-produced garden paraphernalia. Frogs, bees, flowers, birds, deer, rabbits, and many other appreciated organisms are imitated in the form of cheap, plastic junk that serves no functioning purpose other than to supposedly be “cute.” There seems to be a natural desire to make yards “pretty” or appealing, which is understandable by my standards. What I do not understand is why the culture in central Minnesota finds these distasteful items to be appealing when placed out in nature where they do not translate.

This motif of garden décor is all too familiar, as I grew up seeing these items on a daily basis, which brought about positive and negative connotations. They do provide nostalgia for me personally, as they remind me of my grandmother and mother. As a child, I appreciated these decorations since they were toy-like representations. This may be a reason why I do have a positive response to them in my memories. There are also negative connotations with these decorations being seen as unnecessary and overbearing, especially in my eyes today. Looking beyond the human-made aspects of a yard, there are blatantly beautiful life forms that need no justification in their aesthetic appeal and purpose. Nature already provides a landscape full of many distinct organic forms and colors. What I am addressing and exploring through this project is the reason why people feel the need to distastefully imitate the already beautiful place in which they reside.

My grandmother’s yard is especially littered with sporadic garden décor. I have very fond memories of spending time with her and my grandfather at their cabin. This nostalgia includes mental imagery associated with their gardens at the cabin and the items in them. Their yard contains items of pastiche including plastic and wooden imitations of ducks, bees, frogs, rabbits, butterflies, birds, geese, loons, and many other native animals that are all too commonly found on their property in reality. There is an underlying reason for my grandmother’s enjoyment in imitating these common organisms, which I am exploring through the photograph of the bee. This photograph of an artificial, whimsical bee was taken at her cabin. I edited the photo by inserting an image of a real bumblebee to emphasize the irrational existence of the artificial one. The redundancies of the images I have produced add to this. Through this ridiculous and silly context, I am attempting to help others realize the unnecessary, but common motif of the culture.

My mother’s yard entails a unifying theme of garden décor. She enjoys the parody of frogs in her gardens with many figurines placed about in an excessive manor. There also must be some meaningful approach to this imitation, similar to that of my grandmothers. I explore this frog themed décor through the image I have produced. Just as the photograph of the bee, this frog is an artificial, whimsical representation of the realistic version. It is so excessive that it is even wearing a crown. The redundancy and positioning of the realistic frog with the artificial one emphasizes the ridiculousness of the artifice, again. In addition to the redundant theme in these two works, I plan to create a series. This will push even further the idea of redundancy.

In documentation of the garden décor, I have taken pictures to examine the themes and motives behind their existence. In my own satire, I have assembled collages via Photoshop to express redundancy on a deeper level than just the artificial version in gardens. Repetition, redundancy, and the concept of place are all evident in the collages of Suzi Gablik. In studying her work, I enjoyed the color and whimsical representation of the places portrayed in her collages.

Through my exploration and documentation, I have learned that there is a primal need for humans to imitate “beauty,” or what they may personally find beautiful. This concept is often a derivative of the values in a given culture. There is enjoyment in dwelling on what one may find beautiful or enjoyable, in the sense that it creates a longer-lived existence. The people in central Minnesota know that there are deer in the surrounding area, although they may not see them all of the time. Artifice and imitation provides the longer-lived existence. In the images I have created, I am providing a permanent existence to the redundancy in which humans find essential to well being.