accident that you learn how to repeat is, in fact, a
new technique!”
“I don’t know how to talk
‘in general’ about the relationship of my
work to my sense of place. The relationship is and almost
always has been be extremely specific. My grandfather
taught me that the land is sacred. I learned this also
from several Native Americans. When I decided to work
with visual media instead of with words, I carried with
me an important lesson from my college creative writing
teacher. He impressed upon me the importance of writing
about what I know. Beginning with the intense experience
of living and working in a one-room cabin in rural Wisconsin
for four years from 1973-77, my relationship with nature
and with natural landscape intensified tremendously.
The spiritual connection intimated by both my grandfather
and indigenous people began to sink in and affect my
thinking and values profoundly. It has been the foundation
for my best work ever since, directing my work, but
also directing my life and travels, where I live and
where I choose to work.”
“Most of my work since 1988 has
directly related to the Florida landscape and seascape
or to the international experiences that I have increasingly
had since moving to Florida.”
“Beginning with the Jupiter Diary
Series (1989-present) in Florida, living in a flat,
heavily foliated, visually confining place, my work
has been much more micro-focused. I find myself working
from the surface of my pond to the lights and darks
of jungle-like foliage to cloud studies. When I travel,
I often find myself translating immediate impressions
and ideas about a place and its culture into object
form.”
“When I travel, I often find
myself translating immediate impressions and ideas about
a place and its culture into object form.”
“Most recently, my travels in China have affected
my work in other ways, relating to urban events, places
and socio-politics themes. The Liang’s Garden
Series comes from a combination of watching parents
teach their young children how to write with brushes,
studying about the cultural revolution, seeing evidence
of the old China and its rich culture revealed in back
alleys and back rooms and in the hearts of the people,
while watching armies of mirrored glass condos marching
across the countryside, swallowing up temples and Ming
dynasty villages. It is the synthesis of a time of silk
robes and bamboo flutes to the sooty cement tenement
walls and gray civilian garb from the days of Mao to
the designer jeans and neon atmosphere of the present.”
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