idea entry: week 02: sept 09

word of the week: ESCAPE

(Babes in bathing suits, balloons, bows and arrows. Digital image. Wired Magazine. Web. 8 Sept. 2010. .)

quotes:
"Nature, to geographers, is the external natural environment. Where he does that leave the body - in particular, my animal body? The body is clearly nature. But it is not external to me. It is me: I don't want to, and in any case I can't, escape from it.Yet, this isn't quite true. In pain, I have often wished that I could abandon my body and be elsewhere. It is even possible to do so to a limited degree." (Tuan, preface)

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes." - Marcel Proust

""Escape to nature" is dependent on "escape from nature." The latter is primary and inexorable. It is so because pressures of population and social constraint must build up first before the desire to escape from them can arise; and I have already urged that these pressures are themselves a consequence of culture- of our desire and ability to escape from nature. "Escape from nature" is primary for another reason, namely, that the nature one escapes to, because it is the target of desire rather than a vague "out there" to which one is unhappily thrust, must have been culturally delineated and endowed with value. What we wish to escape to is not "nature" but an alluring conception of it, and this conception is necessarily a product of a people's experience and history - their culture. Paradoxical as it may sound, "escape to nature" is a cultural undertaking, a covered-up attempt to "escape from nature."" (Tuan, 19)

source:
(Tuan, Yi-fu. Preface. Escapism. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins UP, 1998. Print.)
This particular section in the book speaks about escapism. In this particular section, nature, which is desired location for my work to take place. I did not have a concrete reason why I was drawn to portray this body of work outside in the wild and the reason is the outside world yields to endless and boundless possibility, perfect for a pre-meditative escapist. The vast space open to infinite paths to take. Tuan was able to present two contrasting ideas and both making logical sense. The ideas contrasted and ironically cancels out the other, but it also points arrows leading to one another, back and forth, justifying my attraction to the outside world for this project.

summary:
Proust quote act as an inspirational voice to me. The words bring me back down to the ground and allows me to plant my feet for awhile before I take flight again. Sometimes, it is hard to stand, to be grounded in reality, to be surrounded, invaded, looked-in upon, be a part of, contribute, and connected. It's not to say that those things are bad, but I think there is something about exclusiveness. The space to think, to breathe, to be, untouchable, untainted, unbreakable, for there are no external forces pushing and pulling from all directions.

Tuan allows me to look at escapism as a choice, as a two-way road. It can be a struggle both to and from. Living life with the mentality that the grass is always greener on the other side can be detrimental and disappointing, but so is living with no hopes, dreams, or a sense of curiosity for what is beyond the eyes immediately see. I want my imagery to be dark, but hopeful. And endless supply of fuel and a destination unknown.