Masked Identity

The Nature of Nature

Artist Statement

Nature can be an elusive concept that is often personified as "Mother Nature." She is usually shown with a crown of flowers around her head, nurturing the small animals around her. When beginning this project I considered playing along with this idealized imagery, but I began to think about how nature really treated these small animals, the land around her, and the people part of her landscapes. Everything belonging to nature has to follow her laws. Kill or be killed, eat or be eaten, grow and evolve, or die off. But because of these laws, there's balance and everything flows and ebbs together in perfect harmony.

Because of these laws that seem harsh and almost primitive, I began to think of nature as more of a beast made up of the elements that help encourage the growth of life. I mainly composed the mask of leaves, because of their release of oxygen to help support growth, and small flowers and roses, because of their habit of releasing seed pods that spread and encourage the continuation of life.

I composed the mask in a tier system beginning at the bottom with summer. Each tier is constructed in a semi circle that connects back to the head of Nature, representing how everything starts at and goes back to her. After summer is spring, fall, and then winter. Winter is characterized by being a crown of dead sticks at the top of her head. On the back of her head is a bed of white roses. I chose white roses for their defined purity. I designated them to be blooming behind the crown to show that after death, Nature creates new life.

My first three images are clear pictures of the mask just to give the viewer an idea of what the mask looks like. The images after are how I really wanted to represent the face of nature. Blurred and moving out of sight. I chose this because of how man kind is turning their back on Nature. Deforesting, construction, and pollution all distorting her true image. The blurred images is to show Nature as a soon to be memory.