Post Card Project.

The location I chose for this project was Millennium Park in Grand Rapids, this is a place I recently discovered this past summer. When most individuals think of a park an image of a grassy area with a jungle gym, picnic tables, and maybe a pavilion comes to mind. Not only does Millennium park offer all of these, it also has a sand volley ball court, bocce ball court, a beach, fishing areas, boat rentals, and my personal favorite miles of paved bike trails. In exploring why I was drawn to this place I came to realize that is was not only because it allowed me to be close to nature, it was because the park tamed the parts of nature I find dis-pleasurable. More specifically I developed a belief that for humans to be happy we have to strike a balance between the worlds we create (man made) and the natural world (nature). If we surround ourselves with only man made things we will not be truly satisfied, because any joy we feel also comes with a veneer of artificialness. Conversely if we forgo everything in the manmade world we will feel despair, because nature, true nature, is cold, uncaring, harsh, and unrelenting. It is literally kill or be killed and nature doesn't care how you think the world should be. So happiness in my opinion lies in a balance of both, and parks are such a place where this balance is attempted. My photos hope to show the relationship / interconnectedness between us and nature to answer the question of why we are drawn to nature.

In my first postcard called "Natures Power" I use the image of a power tower to help illustrate natures power. First I used the polygonal lasso tool to cut out the power tower that actually exists in the scene. Then with the same tool and the eraser I cut out any of scenery that can be seen through the power tower to make it transparent or like a mask. After this I copied what I had cut out 3 times. For the first one I made it appear as if it were naturally growing out of a bush in the foreground. I did this by erasing the bottom two thirds of the power tower and by changing its opacity. Then I used the paintbrush and patterned it to look like the bush. The reason for this is that I wanted to illustrate that our power comes from nature and a lot of times we don't realize it. We think we have domain over the food we eat, but if there wasn’t power in it would we still have supermarkets full of food just for its ascetics? It is because of this power that we are drawn to it. For the second power tower I shrunk it down with the transformation tool and greatly reduced its opacity. Then I placed it in a shadowy place in the background. The reason for this is to illustrate that there is a dark power in nature that we either ignore (at our own peril) or are afraid of. Consider the Ebola virus that ravaging western Africa. This is a part of nature we can't even see with our own eyes and only 100 years ago didn't even know existed. Yet it has caused countless deaths. The third power tower I placed in the bottom right corner of the photo under a bush. The reason I did this was to create an optical illusion. By placing it in the foreground under something it appears smaller then the power tower in the center of the picture. In reality they are the exact same size. I did this to illustrate that although we feel separated from nature we are actually more similar to nature than we realize. I say this because ALL living things contain DNA, and DNA is only composed or four different amino acids represented by the letters A, T, C, and G. The only difference between a polar bear, a fern, a fish, and us is the arrangement of these letters. 

For the second post card called "Hidden Nature" I utilized a photo of the underside of a drinking fountain. First I used the magic wand, smudge, healing, and paintbrush tools to change the color of the sky to a more idealized blue, I also used these tools to blend it with the trees that were in the background. I did this to for ascetic reason and because the original sky color was distracting. My hope was to draw the attention to the fountain. On the underside of the fountain I Used the clone stamp and the healing brush tool to create the effect of grass under the fountain. I then used the polygonal lasso tool and eraser to pull the image of a park bench a trash can and a grill from other photos of the park. I then shrunk them and placed them on the underside of the fountain. I did this to convey that nature is far more complicated then how it appears on the surface sometimes. Take for instance a dead log in the woods. If you roll it over you will see all sorts of organisms growing and crawling around. Consider for a moment that is an area that other living things are trying to tame. When we see this we should be just as amazed as if we had seen a little park under this fountain. As far as the bugs are concerned they were creating a park, it just happens to be in a place we normally don't look at.

For the third post card called "The Price of Balance" I utilized the photo of a jungle gym at the park. I also utilized an image from the website  

http://the-tarpeian-rock.blogspot.com/2010/05/oil-paintings-and-water-colors.html

Of oil mixed with water. I overlaid the oil image on the park and then put a mask on it. Utilizing the eraser and the brush tool with different opacity on the mask I took the water puddles and replaced them with oily water. I also took the areas that were drenched and made it appear as if oil was just below the surface or that the ground was saturated with oil. I did this to illustrate that creating a park like this has a cost. Keep in mind that 97.4% of the park services are free. Yet I've heard people while I was at the park complain about the oilrigs and pumps that are around. I believe that part of the money that is earned from these pumps helps to pay for the park, making a very lovely park available to anyone. Whether it's this park or another park, a nice park doesn't just happen. If we want to enjoy these places then we should take into account every aspect of the park (including how it is paid for). If we do not want oil to make the park free then we should come up with an alternative funding plan instead of complaining about it. We shouldn't only focus on the parts of the park we like while ignoring the rest; otherwise we may end up taking them for granted, and we very well could lose this beautiful thing that gives us such joy.