* All images used with permission. Please do not distribute without first contacting the artist.
Amy Feger is an artist based in Montevallo, AL. She earned a BFA in Painting from the University of Louisville and an MFA in Painting from the University of Alabama.
Amy explains her work by saying, “Landscape is a perennial subject of my work. My life and artwork are situated on the cusp of “The Information Age” and “The Anthropocene.” My praxis for developing a body of work starts with observations within the landscape. Often these places are locations near my home, my local landscape. I look for surprises in a place I consider familiar. I often find those surprises along the edges where natural and manmade systems are conjoined. I continue to explore these landscapes using Google Earth’s 3D renderings, which give a first person point-of-view on the ground and are compiled from topographic data layered with satellite images. I discovered anomalies or glitches in the data that generate otherworldly images representing actual places. Looking critically at how visual language mediates the perception of the landscape being represented meaning is implied through institutionalized representations of the landscape created by non-art institutions such as, the state transportation department road maps, or these Google Earth digital renderings. Examining the language of visual communication employed by these entities, I compare my personal experiences and observations in these same or comparable landscapes to the presentation of the place in public media. These discoveries in this virtual landscape become the source material that I use to compose images. From these “virtual” experiences I created a series of paintings capturing the essence of a virtual space representing a physical place. In an effort to realize some meaning for my existence on this planet at this point in geologic and human history, and in response to the lack of public awareness of or concern for the threatened local and global environmental infractions, I am compelled to create work that raises awareness of the environmental impact that humans have on the landscape.”
