Vision
"Knowledge of a place - where you are and where you come from - is intertwined with knowledge of who you are. Landscape, in other words, shapes mindscape."
David W. Orr - Author of Ecological Literacy
About US
Co-led by Cristina Valverde and Cory Brown, this project has been and continues to be an evolving team effort.
Cristina is a mixed-medium artist, wellness practitioner, and co-creator whose life and works explore the interweavings of ecological interdependence, animism, consciousness, living life as art, and art as medicine.
Cory is a designer, builder, and artist, drawing inspiration from wild mountains, craft oriented cultures, artful function, existential meanderings, and the void from where it all comes.
VISION
"Knowledge of a place - where you are and where you come from - is intertwined with knowledge of who you are. Landscape, in other words, shapes mindscape."
David W. Orr - Author of Ecological Literacy
WHY THIS? WHY A GIANT HEAD
The human face is quite possibly the most emotionally relatable image we can look at. Our brains have multiple dedicated areas specific to recognizing and processing faces...
What feelings will arise when you stand in front of this 20-foot tall face emerging from the earth?
What kind of connection will you find in this reflection made of materials from forest tending?
What kind of story will we discover together watching something so beautiful set ablaze in a mythically symbolic way?
OUR TEAM
We couldn't do this without the volunteer efforts of our evolving team. Thank you so much to all who have put their time and energy towards this! Some of the pivotal members of this team have been:
Emmett Brennan
Luis Gonzalez
Gwenna Mckee
Ryath Beauchene
Colby Accacian
Kyla Vangelder
Hunter Franks
Creation Process
While the finished result may vary from the concept sketches, these have been instrumental in helping us know where to start.
The skeleton for the head is constructed from excess or overcrowded timber in our forest. The surfacing is a mixture of thin offcuts from local lumber mills and dead branch debris from the forest. The thin offcuts allow us to bend and create some of the complex curved surfaces of a human face. The branch debris will be added as a second layer to create detail and connect the visual of our overgrown forest.
Guiding Principles
01 Regenerative Forest Stewardship Practices
The project will enlist practices informed by traditional ecological forestry perspectives, while providing a platform for participants for discussion and learning about our local place(s).
02 Waste–stream Resource Priority
Wherever possible, we will prioritize use of “waste streams”, local donations, and tool library resources.
03 Zero or Positive Impact
Each step of the project will assess its impact, aiming to achieve an outcome with no consequence or a positive socio-environmental impact before being enacted.
04 Collaborative Creativity Towards Meaningful Culture
Engaging the creative act together we aim to cultivate deeper meaning in our local culture through shared experience and values.