Topophilia

The word topophila, as popularized by Yi-Fu Tuan, is the affective bond between people and place. Topophilia is described by Wikipedia as "a strong sense of place, which often becomes mixed with the sense of cultural identity among certain people and a love of certain aspects of such a place.” 

This series of paintings is based on video stills compiled from a nearly decade-long practice of filming myself improvising movement in the fields around Bennington Lake in Walla Walla, WA. In the improvisations, I was curious how the land influenced my internal sense of rhythm, time, and movement qualities. For these paintings, I was interested in moments when my body appeared to merge with the landscape and look more abstract.