Landscaping the House.

For the past couple of months I've had two parallel bodies of work going:  nature & houses.  The houses have definitely been on the front burner but I've still been making work about living breathing things that come from the earth.  (Although I've tweaked them a bit.)  I don't see the two paintings below as completely separate from the house series, I'm starting to think about what would be in and around the houses I build - like landscaping the outside or decorating the inside.

I've always been fascinated with "outdoor" things that we bring indoors such as house plants, fireplaces, birds in cages, fish in bowls, floral arrangements, fountains, etc. and vice versa - items to be enjoyed outside but versions of inside items like lawn furniture.  Then there are lovely objects like turf grass and faux wood grain that are so distinctly unnatural but so completely recognizable as being based on the outdoors that they create their own category of weird manmade nature all together.  I adore all of these things, they float between being indoors and outdoors - they are a bridge that connect the two.

I'm pretty sure if you had on x-ray glasses and looked at magnolia tree seed pods, you'd find they are filled with cogs.  And an ant farm would be involved too.

Outdoor plant, indoor plant, outdoor plant, indoor plant.

Not to worry…the houses are still being built.

Blank structure.

In-progress house.

And so are some wooden panels.  I spent the last couple of days building two panels and it is becoming important to construct the entire piece - support and all.  (Not to brag but I totally built the frame above the panels a few weeks ago.  (Totally bragging.))