GITMO: ABANDONED CAMP X-RAY (2009)

Ink on paper.

The Gitmo: Abandoned Camp X-Ray drawing series addresses both traditional and non-traditional ideas of landscape in the visual arts. Referencing historic drawing techniques, methods and processes from both the east and the west, De St. Croix studies master works in prints, ink painting, woodcuts, screens, scrolls and Japanese/Korean gardens, in an examination of perspective and the pursuit of effective methods of separation of dimensional grounds. In these drawings the fore, middle, and background are separated, creating a forced perspective of great depth and epic proportion in the landscapes. Each drawing is painstakingly rendered in an effort to represent the landscape and its land, trees, flora, fauna, and rock formations, being true to the illusion of scale and depth perception.

Underlying the Gitmo drawing series is extensive research the artist had undertaken through satellite imagery, Google Earth and topographical mapping, and extensive background reading. Each ink drawing is informed by extensive documentation and hundreds of images, studies, and regional interviews inform each rendering. The extensive research De St. Croix undertakes allows him to understand the layered historical implications of the researched region and its people, and to then compositionally align this information within the site selected to be rendered.

Associated project: Detainment Map