Artist Statement / Katie Stubblefield
In these works, I am exploring this complex relationship: the stubborn refusal to quit trying to live here in the face of an all-powerful and capricious mother nature. These drawings, done on discarded plexiglass with Sharpie markers, are the result of a forensic study of past flood and fire zones, earthquake fault lines, global warming projections, and conspiracy theories. Mark-making from these maps intersect with imagery of local current, abandoned or reclaimed infrastructure.
Initially these works started simply as plein air studies, utilizing the scratched-up plexiglass as a view finder and sighting tool. As I worked, I started overlaying with the landscaped and industrial imagery. Over time this imagery has evolved, building layers of drawing on both the front and back of the plexiglass, building density and shadow into the final works.
Formal elements of drawing are used as ways of describing chaos and multiplicity of time. Object scale varies. Perspective rules are misused. Horizon lines are deliberately misaligned. Line work deliberately blurs and links organic and architectural elements together.
I started marveling at the fragility of our situation, the interplay of natural phenomena and man-made structures. In Southern California we continually challenge nature and attempt to evolve our relationship with our environment. Fires, floods, earthquakes, droughts. How much can we improve our safety and the natural world…without actually leaving?
Using discarded and basically indestructible wasted plexiglass seemed to not only function as a wonderful drawing surface and viewfinder but seemed to fit in with the notion of reclaiming a wasted product…in attempting to recycle. Because I wanted the immediacy of a drawn gesture and precision of mapping, drawing made sense.
