Nature Artist Statement

My intent with this piece was to show the relationship between man and the restrictions we place between us and nature. Nature parks always have signs posted to keeps humans in line, that are intended to keep nature pristine and preserved. But so often these signs can seem extreme, in that they spell out very explicit instructions on what you can and can’t do. So I wanted to push that to the extreme and place a sign at a park that restricts humans even touching and interacting with the nature. It just pushes this distance from something we claim to want to preserve even further. On the flip side, I wanted to show how we restrict nature itself as well. For example, any wildlife or animal preserve you visit will likely include fences or cages. And any way they spin it, we all know it’s for the safety of humans so they don’t get too immersed in nature because what happens may be dangerous or scary. But we don’t realize that these boundaries for our safety also restrict the wildlife itself in ways that may harm it or alter its natural state of being. So I decided to push this to the extreme as well, and restrict an animal’s basic nature because it can be “dangerous,” to show how ridiculous this is. These pieces were then placed side by side to show the self-imposed space we keep between us and nature and all the ridiculousness of it in a comical way.