Watching

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} 

“The earth is worth saving and … our destinies and that of the animals are intertwined.”

-Elizabeth Grajales, 1991

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. According to Grajales, “The birds in my work are a vision from my dream world … [they] represent the conflict in our environment between nature and man’s tools of destruction.” 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 almost as 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.