Blueprints for Future Outlaws |
Artist Statement: Architectural drawing is a fascinating visual language that brings to life an imagined world by providing instructions on how to build it. Optimistic by nature, blueprints begin with a survey of existing conditions and proceed through a series of interdependent vantage points linked conventions and code. Plans, sections, and elevations situate the body relative to earth and sky yet each on its own remains incomplete, limited and longing for the axis cannot contain. Any single drawing tells but one part of story, its fullest meaning only revealed by the presence of its companions and one’s careful reading over time.
Over the past six years, cultural and political events have unearthed deep layers of questions in me about our country, our history, and my own ‘existing conditions’ that frame and color my experience of the world. In action and in quiet, I’ve contemplated my role as a small part in this great whole, as well as my responsibility to the many communities to which I belong. As I watch and listen to the news, I draw as a way of processing what I witness and the many concerns and unresolved memories these events trigger. Throughout, I’ve done so at home, constantly reminded that my own existence serves as a link in a long line that connects the past through the present to an unknown future I will one day leave to those I love most.
Artist Bio: Liz Swanson is an Associate Professor of Architecture who has been teaching at the University of Kentucky since 2001. Her projects span a variety of scales and media, and represent a lifelong love of drawing, painting, collage and mixed media in 2- and 3-dimensions. Her work centers on drawing as a physical and psychological process of construction that reveals and directs the social, cultural, political and spiritual aspects of the human experience. She is fascinated by the many ways that line, color, and materials influence the reading of form and space.
Over the past six years, cultural and political events have unearthed deep layers of questions in me about our country, our history, and my own ‘existing conditions’ that frame and color my experience of the world. In action and in quiet, I’ve contemplated my role as a small part in this great whole, as well as my responsibility to the many communities to which I belong. As I watch and listen to the news, I draw as a way of processing what I witness and the many concerns and unresolved memories these events trigger. Throughout, I’ve done so at home, constantly reminded that my own existence serves as a link in a long line that connects the past through the present to an unknown future I will one day leave to those I love most.
Artist Bio: Liz Swanson is an Associate Professor of Architecture who has been teaching at the University of Kentucky since 2001. Her projects span a variety of scales and media, and represent a lifelong love of drawing, painting, collage and mixed media in 2- and 3-dimensions. Her work centers on drawing as a physical and psychological process of construction that reveals and directs the social, cultural, political and spiritual aspects of the human experience. She is fascinated by the many ways that line, color, and materials influence the reading of form and space.
All Lexington Art League programs are made possible through the generous support of LexArts.
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The Kentucky Arts Council, a state arts agency, provides operating support to the Lexington Art League with state tax dollars and federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support provided by Lexington Parks & Recreation.
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