Elegy for a Forest

Ferguson, Mandy

ABSTRACT: Elegy For a Forest is a body of work that contemplates the potential loss of an ecosystem through an embodied, subjective exploration of a fir forest impacted by human activity. This work examines the dead and dying Fraser fir trees of Mount Mitchell State Park and Great Smoky Mountains National Park using a variety of printmaking strategies to reference the environment’s fragile existence and the ephemeral nature of the experience. Processes include woodcuts with monotype, photopolymer gravures, and photopolymer gravure artist books. These techniques are rendered with a reference to romantic sublime landscapes of the 19th Century. These prints thus aim to recall the history of the pictorial language of nature and to highlight both the majesty of nature and the tragedy of our carelessness with it. Overall, these prints are an effort to understand and convey the complex environmental issues surrounding the decline of the Fraser fir and to elicit concern in the viewing public for these issues.