nebulous

Honestly, I still don't remember the moment when I began turning words into aerial journeys around the planet, but along the way it has become easier for me to explain how that idea is manifesting with the materials I have chosen.

Ok Ok, good art needs no explanation, right?
I disagree with this regarding process. Explaining process is beneficial for everyone involved.

Perhaps, The Purity of the Unknown Trumps Calculated Puzzle-making in the Studio. I'm talking about the gut feeling that compels us to create something by grabbing things around us and from within us to put out there for others (unless you never show your work).

What do you put of yourself?
Is it so personal that no one will know the story unless they ask?
Is it your own history or of others you read about?
Is it something within you that others can relate to somehow....or does that even matter?

It is about being strong and convicted in the path that you choose. Figuring things out as you go along has a bad rap, but solidifying and improving ideas - now that is growth and progress.

So without further ado, here is the process:
Theses mixed media paintings are metaphorical maps. As we know, Maps are "drawings" of the landscape.

I choose emotive words that have multiple meaning with the landscape and with how people communicate.  Based upon the concept of a Map, the paintings evoke notions of the globe.

The words I incorporate are the titles of the Map.
Here is a traditional example:

 S. Augustus Mitchell, et al.
A New Map of the World on the Globular Projection
Thomas, Cowperthwait & Co., Philadelphia: c. 1850-1855 

 Here is my example:

nebulous:

–adjective

1.

hazy, vague, indistinct, or confused: a nebulous recollection of the meeting; a nebulous distinction between pride and conceit.

2.

cloudy or cloudlike.

3.

of or resembling a nebula or nebulae; nebular.

From that one word, many stories can unfold.

In my paintings, the atlas lists that I incorporate show the locations used to generate the flight path:

N: Notre Dame Bay, Canada to Nouvelle France
E: Eureka, California to Evergreen, Alabama
B: Blumut Mountain, Malaysia to Boca, Argentina
U: United Nations Headquarters to Upemba Park, Zaire
L: Langeland, Denmark to Langres, France
O: Ocumare del Tuy, Vietnam to Oderima, Portugal
U: Union, Missouri to United Arab Emerits
S: Skye Island, Scotland to Sleepy Eye Mountain, Minnesota

I see them much like the Index or Chapters of a Book.

From there, the rest is up to the viewer to choose how to "read" the narrative that is expressed and shared on the map. The landscape becomes a new and uncharted territory to explore, both visually and in the mind.

Related Reading:
Flight Path words works on paper

Translating the word C-O-L-O-R over and over and over with html, flight path and constellations.

Images and text of original artwork, Leora Lutz