With my most recent series, Ancient Civilizations, I am continuing to explore ideas of human evolution by contemplating what has been left behind by other cultures throughout history. I view my new drawings as the next stage of my previous work, New Life: Ancient Seeds, where I examined the concept of what type of abstract life would burst forth from planting seeds recovered from ancient times. The overall intention of this new work is to grapple with humanity’s mysterious past and present visual representations of what feels like otherworldly places and artifacts that have left behind messages we have yet to truly understand.
During a recent trip to Peru, I had the chance to experience Machu Picchu, considered one of the “new 7 wonders of the world,” located above the Sacred Valley in an area of Cuzco marked by towering peaks and dramatic valleys. The feeling of standing on a precipice that overlooked a complex series of structures inspired a sense of awe and fascination about how such a place could have been created and what people, resources, and technology existed at that time to make such greatness possible. I became increasingly intrigued by the possibility that perhaps a more advanced civilization than our own had existed during ancient times and was somehow lost from a catastrophic, global changing event. Conceivably, ancient civilizations may have had a connection with the cosmos and nature that gave them something that our current stage of evolution is lacking.
After returning home from Peru, I began looking at photos and videos I had taken and realized that the magic and awe that I had felt when physically experiencing the site was lost. I then decided to recreate Machu Picchu as a large scale, transformative drawing intended to capture some sense of the otherworldly ambience conveyed by having truly encountered the power of the place. It was through this process that I began researching other locations, monuments, and artifacts that shared a greatness and mystery that I thought could more fully be expressed by altering the straightforward, realistic representations with a heightened complexity of detail and intricate patterns. The finished series is meant to embody the intensity of a brief encounter with the perplexing roots of our existence.
