SUZANNE STRYK

My "place-based assemblages on maps" document experiences on specific terrain --- observations of life on Whitetop Mountain, say, or perhaps on my own backyard slope. When I'm outside, I leave mind-space and cyber-space behind and enter real space. Real space is where I might spot a Chestnut-sided warbler flitting in the rhododendrons, or get my feet wet drawing damselfly larvae in a stream. Or perhaps unearth a Yonahlossee salamander creeping under a mossy stone. In other words, I mingle with the inhabitants who really own the land. Their life cycles are inextricably bound to the terrain, climate, and soil type of a specific place.

My current map series in progress is titled "Notes on the State of Virginia." This project explores the five geographical regions of my home state. Two of the first in this series, Overburden and Coal Tattoo, tackle coal and mountain top removal mining I witnessed in the Appalachian Plateau. The "Blue Ridge Parkway series" was summer 2010's project located along that skyway drive. And my "Natural Domain Series," from the late 1990s, documented discoveries within my (then) new home of southwest Virginia, after moving here from Illinois.