I'm now looking for nature in culture, natural things in amongst the man made environment, or man made things in a natural environment. The path worn through the woods compacting the soil and polishing roots, a tree planted to decorate a man made environment or a plants chosen to enhance a home. I think about this relationship between man and nature, how nature is seen to enhance our lives rather than being an inherent part of our existence. Visually I like to focus on the living things and blank out the rest, this is an ongoing process in my practice, I see the works I make as a record and reflection of my interaction with the world as an artist.
But it's not all serious, I think about how these things would look without the man made element if I get rid of it by painting it out - the absurdity of cultivated Box plants without their garden/house, the pigeon without its statue perch and the vine shaped like a house but without a house. Thinking about nature in this way, how we use nature in this most every day way, as a means to enhance where we live and work; take away the buildings and we could still guess what should be there in the picture.
Studying the work of Herman de Vries and the philosophies of the Jena Romantics has made me think about how man in general seems to regard the natural world as a resource and yet, there seems to be a desire to be out in the country, to commune with nature and there also seems to be a desire to bring nature to us, in towns and cities.