Erin Catharine's Earth Art Blog

Earth Garden

2008-12-09T16:05:00.000-08:00

Originally I wanted to explore the relationship between the past and the present, but I changed my mind over the weekend. I am a tad bit OCD and love symmetry, and I wanted to take that and apply it to nature, in which nothing is naturally symmetrical.

I found an abandoned garden on my street for my location, and using objects I found surrounding the garden, I made my own.

I alternated old bricks, rocks, and hay to mimic rows in a garden, and used twigs and branches to surround the piece, making a fence. Over all it was a simple process, but making the fence was difficult, mainly because my roommate's dog thought that the branches were for her and kept stealing them.

Final Project

2008-12-05T21:16:00.001-08:00

For my final project, I want to explore the relationship between the past and the present. There is an empty lot down the street from me that has steps in front of it, where a house once stood. I walk by it all the time and find it really interesting, so it is my inspiration for this project. I want to look at how a place that used to be a home to people is now empty and unused in a place where space is at a premium.

2008-12-02T10:07:00.000-08:00

I found these large pieces of metal somewhere on Lombardy St. a few days ago. I have no idea what they are, but I thought how they are aging and rusting made them look more organic. I also really liked how the surrounding environment has started to take it over.

Earth Art in the Fan

2008-11-18T09:50:00.000-08:00

This is over at the Warsaw Condos on Floyd. I have no idea what it is or why its there, but its pretty cool.

I saw this tree one day walking to class on Main St.

2008-11-12T19:43:00.001-08:00

Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Surrounded Islands, Biscayne Bay, Greater Miami, Florida, 1980-83.

2008-11-12T19:36:00.001-08:00

These photos are both from Flickr, not sure of the name of the artist, but I liked the simplicity and the movement of the wheat (?) in the bottom picture. I find the top picture to be striking in how the twigs are framing the sunset perfectly.

2008-11-06T08:57:00.001-08:00

I am a Creative Advertising major, and one of my ad campaigns was for Solo Cups. The campaign ended up being a series of pictures (this is one of them), where I put the cups in fences around Richmond in different shapes and messages. Looking at it now, I realize that it’s actually a form of earth art. I used pre-existing objects on the landscape (in this case, fences) and used it to make something.

What is Earth Art?

2008-11-06T08:03:00.000-08:00

Obviously earth art is the combination of art and the earth, where the earth is used as the artistic medium. When I first started to think about earth art, I thought mainly of larger, man-made pieces, such as Stonehenge and crop circles. But when thinking about it further, I realized that it doesn’t have to touched by human hands to be considered art. As corny as it sounds, mother nature is an artist: take for instance snowflakes. They’re beautiful, and there are no two that are the same. I think that’s art.

On the other hand, earth art that isn’t natural can take all different forms. It can range from arranging stones, to carving trees, all the way to certain forms of architecture (i.e., log cabins). I personally believe that as long as long as the earth is used in some manner, its earth art.