Buried Drawings

As part of a project to better come to know a wooded area close to my home, I embarked over the course of a year on a series of small drawings.  On my walks through the forest, I looked for certain niches of the place spoke to me:  the curve or angle of a particular branch, the forms of wood, rock, moss.  The drawings I did were often close-ups, done in permanent marker on pieces of stiff white card, about 3 inches square.  

 I hid each completed drawing in the same area where it was made – under a log, buried in moss, or in a stump.  The woods would then keep the drawing for me while the elements did their own work on it – sometimes over a few days, sometimes a period of a month or more.  The trick was to then be able to find these drawings on subsequent walks, without the help of maps or other human technologies.  It required that I notice particular areas with care and get to know the forest in an intimate way, looking for my treasure as a squirrel might search for buried nuts.  It was always a joy when I found the drawings.  I did find most of them, though some still lie buried there.

Once the collection of drawings was completed, they were taken back and photographed in the areas where they were originally done.  In this regard, the photographs include forms created by me (and responded to by the forest), as well as the forms of the forest itself.