Billowing smokestacks, turbulent clouds, a fiery red horizon, and a deserted highway fill this barren landscape. What has happened? One living creature is around to tell the story. With the energy of a character from a computer animation, a lone bird (is it an eagle?) draws attention to its plight and to the destruction of the world that it inhabits. Grajales creates a stark contrast between the bird and nature and the man-made threats to them. Drawn in stippled, multicolored patterns and textures, the bird and landscape are presented as almost one. Although the bird dominates the foreground, the hard-edged monumentality of the giant stacks and the sharp curve of the never-ending dark road make their harmful impact on the environment clear.From the Artist
My work is always in a constant state of evolution. A print project will always allow for my individual aesthetic expression along with the potential of a mass media communicational force. The birds in my work are a vision from my dream world which I consciously decided to represent the conflict in our environment between nature and man's tools of destruction.
—From Brandywine Workshop and Archives records
Elizabeth Grajales was born in Brooklyn, New York City. She earned a BFA in painting and drawing from Arizona State University, Tempe, and a BS in landscape architecture from City College of New York.
Grajales' work has been exhibited ...