Installation by Catherine Borowski and Lee Baker. — Graphic Rewilding
Lee Baker and Catherine Borowski didn’t exactly grow up in the countryside. In fact, both of them were urbanites as children. Baker says that he “was more into cars” at that point in his life. In a recent Video [click to view] Baker talks candidly about a time when he was suffering from severe depression.
He discovered that being outdoors helped. Not only seeing the natural world, but sketching it and painting it, that was instrumental in his healing. Teaming up with Borowski, whose own childhood was lived in the city, the two artists collaborate to place installations of natural images in public places — bringing the images of nature into the manmade environment. Their results are stunning!
This is beauty with a purpose! It’s evangelistic. Baker talks about a sad phenomenon in modern humanity — the “Extinction of Experience.” He describes it like this: “People who don’t have much exposure to nature start to lose a grasp of an empathy for nature itself, and I think this happens to a lot of people in urban environments.”
And this results in a lot of problems. Baker goes on to explain that people who do experience nature find themselves in a better mood, a better mental state, and with better cognative abilities. It even helps with pain relief! That has Baker and Borowski on a mission.
Seeing their work on LinkedIn [click to read] was a great discovery. As a traditional mural painter, I’ve tried to introduce natural themes to such environments as well. Baker promises to offer a series of instructional videos on his LinkedIn profile. I’m looking forward to catching all of them. Here he explains the philosophy of Graphic Rewilding:
“It’s been shown that a 20 minute walk in nature is enough to significantly improve your mood and reduce feelings of stress and anxiety.
However, as nature becomes less available for many in urban environments, it’s also been shown that exposure to simple PICTURES of nature has a positive effect on the mind. For example, patients who have images of nature in hospital waiting rooms have lower levels of stress and anxiety.
So, as an artistic counterbalance to the severe lack of green space in cities, Lee Baker and Catherine Borowski co-founded Graphic Rewilding to create vast, flower inspired, attention grabbing, positivity inducing artworks and immersive environments in often-overlooked and under-appreciated urban spaces
Though these images could never provide the same environmental and psychological benefits as real nature, Baker & Borowski want to inspire people to connect and empathise a little more with the natural world, hopefully mitigating some of the negative effects of a lack of exposure to green space.” — Graphic Rewilding
For information on our other artistic ventures head to www.baker-borowski.com
Lee Baker and Catherine Borowski. Photo by Graphic Rewilding
Old Georgetown Road Garage
Old Georgetown Road Garage Proposal. — The Kirchman Studio
Here I did a fairly abstract concept utilizing the subtle inclusion of the geometry of a seashell. This was an attempt to insert a natural element where the select committee is likely to prefer abstract themes.
The Cherry Avenue Mural
[click to view]
The Cherry Avenue Mural. — Bob Kirchman [1.]
The owner of an urban shopping center approached me with a problem. Her beauty shop tenant was situated at the end of a rather forbidding alley. The alley ended just beyond the shop entrance at a high concrete retaining wall. “People just don’t like going in there. What if we commissioned a mural on the retaining wall to brighten up the space?”
The shop was run by several African-American ladies, so the shopping center owner suggested an African-American theme.
“We just like flowers!” said the beauticians, almost in unison, and so I worked from photos I had taken of the hollyhocks over by Gypsy Hill Park by Springhill Road. The result was “Heaven’s Hollyhocks,” [2.] and everyone associated with the shopping center loved it.
The moral of the story might be: “Listen to the people who pass through a space every day — and honor them.”
Elyssian Lillies
[click to read]
Here is a proposal for a subway station in Bethesda, Maryland. — Graphics by Bob Kirchman
I recently discovered Graphic Rewilding [click to visit], a group of artists dedicated to introducing natural forms to stark urban environments. It reminded me of this mural idea I submitted to a competition in Bethesda, Maryland, a few years ago. Yeah, I would have “Rewilded Bethesda.”
Some spaces sort of scream for some nature. A call for entries had me standing in Bethesda, Maryland, staring into an immense opening in the ground — the entrance to the Bethesda Metro Train and Bus Terminal. It was a concrete canyon, to be sure, supported by a series of cast concrete columns. There was nary a tree in sight. A fountain cascaded in at one side. At least it had water — The “Pool of Bethesda,” perhaps? In any case, we saw it as a place where healing could happen. “Elyssian Lillies” was born.
Architect Harry Weese actually created the spaces of Washington’s Metro as a Brutalism/Minimalist statement. He specified that there be no murals, but four decades later the imposing fearsomeness of the spaces had the leadership of Bethesda, Maryland creating public art.
Was it successful? Our studio submitted a very natural floral mural... a continuation of the theme began in the Hollyhocks Mural in Charlottesville. Our goal was indeed to overlay the stark entrance/bus shed with a natural imagery to create an inviting space. I joked to my colleagues: “This won't win. Bethesda Arts likes stark geometrics.”
Sure enough, the winning design was stark and geometrical. Though it has vibrant colors and is a good mural, it's Mayan hyroglyphs read to some people more like a diagram of underground utility piping. Not exactly the way to make the space more inviting unless the artist is David McCauley, who we all know ROCKS the cutaway illustration. Here are some interesting comments from the article that follows: (read more)
