TOPOPHILIA: A LOVE OF PLACE

When I create a new body of work I challenge myself to slightly alter my conceptual framework, which is based on one's relationship to a place. With this work I looked to the writings of the sociologist, Ray Oldenberg, who coined the term "The Third Place." This term refers to the "anchors" of our communities that are outside of home and work, such as libraries, coffeehouses, local bars, and churches. "They are the heart of a community’s social vitality, the grassroots of democracy, but sadly, they constitute a diminishing aspect of the American social landscape.”

The work is a conglomeration of interiors and exteriors from gathering places in Milwaukee and the Midwest. The warm color palette suggests the comfort these places offer to a community. The traditional uses of Western perspective systems melded with the Eastern tradition of "stacking" space suggest the mysterious, almost religious, bonds that are formed to our physical surroundings. The work's illustrative quality is used to build a narrative that describes how one might form a history to a certain locale. Images of archways are used to depict the idea that these environments serve as ports of entry into a relationship with a new neighborhood.

The work is proclaiming the ordinary as extraordinary. It is articulating the idea that common events, like sharing a meal, meeting friends for a drink, or going to church serve as a way for us to form and preserve an identity as a collective. It is created with the hope that it would stimulate a conversation about the sanctity of knowing one's neighbor, the importance of locality and the elevation of the commonplace to the remarkable.