Plans-Plaid Hill

With this piece we're planning to revisit the idea of working directly on the ground with copy paper. I like the technique but I this time Instead of constructing an image I wanted to work with an easily recognizable repeatable pattern. We'll be putting a simple plaid pattern made from three colors of copy paper onto the top of the hill. I like that the plaid will echo the vertical lines of the trees.

The hill is HUGE (well over 80 feet at the top) and a part of the Disc Golf course in Druid Hill Park.   Terry and I can't tackle this one alone, it's very big AND it's in a public place (people may very well want to play disc golf in the afternoon). We'll have three assistants joining us so we can cover more ground more quickly.

In order to secure the copy paper to the grass without it blowing away we'll be using thousands of golf tees. I like that when you're up close each sheet looks so warped and curvy but it's not something you can see from far away.

Here's the map drawing that shows one full repetition of the pattern. It's now laminated so it's more durable.

I pack all the supplies in durable reusable tote bags. When you do 6 shots in 4 days this is crucial. For this piece each bag holds a few reams of paper with pre-drilled holes, golf tees and big yogurt cups which we'll use so that all 5 of us putting this together can hold a bunch of golf tees at one. 

Plaid isn't a completely random pattern for me I work with a lot of plaid patterns in my drawings and sculpture. For be it's both a formal device and a connection to my maternal grandmother her Duncan tartan  pictured above. We used to get catalogs of all kinds of things you could get with your family tartan on them, kilts, shawls, coasters, ties, all kinds of stuff.  It was odd that the catalogue could be so personal. 

I'm teaching myself about how plaids interact I feel like people who really work with these things  probably know more and I'm discovering how they work by working with them. There's probably some sort of book out there about how to weave plaids that I should look at. When you're drawing plaid layers of transparent color interact in certain ways but when you're actually weaving things are hidden and revealed, you have to account for the warp and the weft, it's much different than making a drawing. 

When I was working out the pattern for the hill I had to think about how to show overlapping transparency without it really happening while using lots of the green grass as another colored element. This was a lot more challenging than I imagined in the first place and made this the hardest map drawing for me.