MADELINE MARAK

HIGHWAY LA 1 SOUTH

by Madeline Marak
MEDIUM Oil on panel

From my immediate surroundings, I create representations of the spaces I inhabit. I explore the space where humans and nature interact, where built and natural environments collide to create a negotiated interspace of the urban environment. My practice is motivated by being present, being perceptive, and engaged with my surroundings.

Through painting and photography, I represent the land and my exploration of it. I acknowledge the framework, the lens, and the guise through which I see the natural world. Snap-shot representations of seemingly common places reveal a mediated space between reality and my experience of it. I contemplate a collective relationship to photography’s spurious objectivity yet rely on its perpetuation as facsimile.

Painting draws me closer to the tactility of land and reveals a yearning for an engagement with the physical. Through framing and reframing, I move closer to identifying a contemporary ideology of landscape representations while defining my personal relationship to the landscapes I encounter.