Alison Lee

A desire to explore the multitude of intriguing places and landscapes in the world has overcome me, and with it I have developed a deep fascination for maps.  My work stems from the topics of location and topography, as the pieces I create continue this exploration through the intermingling of maps with wood.  The wood grain provides natural contour lines, which hold a topographic likeness, as well as reference the man-made lineation on maps themselves.  Instead of hiding the lumber and covering it completely, the substrate serves as a part of the work itself.  Doing so allows the untouched areas to yield their own shapes and passages, further alluding to topographical regions.  Relationships begin to form between the materials themselves, as well as between the viewer and their own explorative desires.