LandE scape
CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
LandEscape meets
Joanne Gravelin
An interview by Katherine Williams, curator and Josh Ryder, curator landescape @ europe. com
Artist Joanne Gravelin ' s work inquires in to the relationship between Man and Environment to draw the viewers through a multilayered journey. In her body of works that we ' ll be discussing in the following pages she captures non sharpness with an universal language, to discuss the consequences of human presence. One of the most impressive aspects of Gravelin ' s work is the way it accomplishes the difficult task of questioning contemporary visualization practice that intends to draw the viewers into an immersive, intense visual experience: we are very pleased to introduce our readers to her stimulating and multifaceted artistic production.
Hello Joanne and welcome to LandEscape: before starting to elaborate about your artistic production would you like to tell us something about your background? You have a solid formal training: after having graduated from Mount Mansfield Union HS, Jericho, you nurtured your education with a BFA of Printmaking, that you received from the Maine College of Art, Portland. How do your studies influence your evolution as an artist? And in particular, how does your cultural substratum inform the way you relate yourself to art making and to the aesthetic problem in general?
Thank you so much for including me in the issue. I feel an important part in my upbringing artistically is growing up in the middle of the woods. Being surrounded by nature inspired me even as a child and it really shaped my becoming a landscape artist. A lot of my work has an undertone of a sublime landscape and that is definitely a direct influence of living in serene wilderness for the first half of my life. My first home was surrounded by nine acres of untouched woods and I spent many hours exploring. My relationship with the forrest is that of many great writers where it is a place for contemplation and opening up to your inner most thoughts.
The Maine College of Art was a wonderful experience in challenging my ideas and leading to many of my main concepts. I had an amazing collection of professors supporting and encouraging me to push my work visually and conceptually. I first started exploring my ideas about man’ s interaction with landscape there. I began focusing on abandoned spaces, specifically, abandoned beach resorts. For me these places created such wonder and awe. A tropical setting taken over by remnants of past vacations and manufactured luxury was spectacular. This theme stuck with me for most of my college career and I consider it my grand take on the