City Blocks

The subject of art lives with us and follows us; shadows of human activity to be revealed by an attentive eye.  I enjoy finding art in the seemingly mundane; the thrill of uncovering the sublime as a hidden treasure in the everyday.  This piece is based on an analytical tool used by urban planners called Nolli Mapping.  A Nolli Map is a plan (top-down) drawing of a collection of buildings and urban features used to evaluate and understand spatial relationships and density (buildings are in black and surface features are in white).  The four panels, from left to right, represent a Nolli Map of the same property transitioning from: (1) farmland, (2) rural living, (3) suburb, and (4) urban core.  While to many it might seem like a simple mapping exercise, in it I see art.  The transition in color from white to black and the movement of shapes feels like reading to me and the contrast is simple yet effective in conveying change.  To me, art is living and the living are always building art.