The Parsons Challenge

                                   CANTEEN

I live in Los Angeles, in an environment which is essentially a desert, situated beside an ocean. There is an infrastructure built into the city that is largely invisible to its population, but essential to its existence. To control the problem of flooding during the city's short winter rainfall period, a system of run-off control channels have tamed and buried our rivers and streams.  

When I went looking for evidence of this system, I discovered a symbol for it that was literally hiding in plain sight: a manhole cover embossed with the words "L.A. WATER".  I decided to use that embossed design as a motif for three objects which explore aspects of the relationship of Los Angeles to its water supply.  

I first photographed the manhole cover and took an impression of it in foil. Then I painted on the foil to replicate and enhance the color and design from the original. Next I applied the foil to an antique canteen I picked up at the local Rose Bowl swapmeet. Wrapped with the manhole cover design, the canteen takes on the symbolism of water storage and conveyance in a desert environment, the canteen itself representing a historical statement about the limitations of this precious resource - that it needs to be held in reserve and used sparingly in the city's climate of drought.

                                   PAINTING

To produce the second object, I scanned the painted foil into my computer and altered the image in Photoshop. By applying different color options and degrees of saturation, I noticed that the image began to take on a watery ripple effect, with reflections of fire worked into the mix.  

The more I thought about this, the more it occurred to me that another aspect of our water situation in the city is the ever-present danger of fire during our long dry season.  As the city grows, it extends its presence into areas where fire is a component of the natural cycle of a desert ecology.  At the edges of civilization, people demand more water to fight against these fires, and this conflict became the basis for the color scheme of my painting.  

In the computer, I also experimented with alternate croppings and angles of composition until I found one that simultaneously revealed and concealed the pattern, giving it an abstract feel. I transferred this design to canvas and painted in acrylic washes, using various consistencies of paint to give the overall image an additional watery appearance.

                                   BATHING SUIT

For the third object I decided to use the manhole cover motif as a textile pattern for a swimsuit of my own design. The swimsuit by itself serves as a symbol of the Los Angeles beach culture, for which the city is known worldwide.  What is not so well-known is that much of our vital water supply, imported from mountains and rivers hundreds of miles away, flows from our homes and businesses into our storm drains and back out into the ocean at various points near those same beaches. So my swimsuit also takes on the symbolism of the city's water system. 

From my initial sketch, I began selecting materials that would connect this piece to water symbolism: a fishnet fabric that picked up some of the design elements of the manhole cover, and wave-like trim for the edges of the bathing suit. I hand-painted the manhole cover pattern onto a specially-chosen metallic gray satin fabric. A local seamstress took my measurements and sewed it to my specifications. The final piece is a photograph of me wearing the suit at the beach, the city's water system as a piece of representative fashion.