Kristin Beal-DeGrandmont

Artist Statement.

My work addresses our collective construct of nature, as it is defined by the antithetical propositions of (what is) “natural.“ It is my intention to magnify, visually and conceptually, both natural and man-made phenomena and experiences found within the landscape while simultaneously critiquing and questioning human behaviors that directly impact the environment. Landfills pile up to become our new mountains; case in point Mt. Trashmore in Virginia Beach, Va., a stuffed landfill covered in grass now serves as a park for the city. This apathetic paradigm shows how the manufactured or altered landscape is widely accepted as a replacement to its “natural” counterpart.

Park: an area of land reserved and managed so that it remains unspoiled, undeveloped, and as natural as possible.

This pragmatic approach may be welcomed as we recognize landfills as a necessary evil. However, the irony is unmistakable when one realizes the earth’s garbage receptacles have become symbols of its natural beauty.

Currently, I am working on a number of projects that abstractly employ ideas of time. The finished works catalogue my process much like our repetitious human behaviors are catalogued within the landscape. By sublimating labor and process into form, my work begins to make tangible the means in which these natural and man-made occurrences build up over the years.

Basic, or even elemental materials are used for their formal qualities insofar as the defined material meets the conceptual criteria of the work. My interest is in how these materials can define a process that then unfolds to expose humor, irony or beauty. The period of time in preparation becomes my training, as the labor and repetition inherent to my process commands from me a level of concentration that requires self-discipline and endurance. Consequently, I began thinking about my works as controlled and composed artistic feats of strength. By defining endurance parameters, such as: the inability to stop until the roll is finished; a four pack equals; a twelve pack equals, etc., this process emulates that of an athlete in training.

The Rendering Indifference Series started as a method of subverting my building process into other media. By not reforming the line, but rather mimicking the mark before it, these drawings further define the apathetic manner in which both natural and man-made phenomena occur.