In Memory of a Dream: A Pattern Language
M
y sabbatical proposal preceded the COVID-19 pandemic. And as the early part of the pandemic unfolded, it was clear that the key components of my initial sabbatical proposal were impossible to carry through. Source material collection and research was to coincide and rely on a planned trip to the area of California where I was born and spent the first seven years of my life; an endless summer. The intention of this trip was to investigate many geological and histori-
cal sites there and along the contiguous landscape between Decorah and central coastal California. I am particularly invested in the overlay of culture and civilization and all the idiosyncrasies therein from pre-Columbian NativeAmerican history, Spanish (Mexican) occupation of California, Portuguese diaspora, and modern American society. This happens to be my particular mix of genetic and cultural heritage and continues to inform how I situate my connection to past, present, and future as a non-linear field or wave-function collapsing place and time. Art creates stories or places to contemplate and engage the total place of human and non-human experience. Not just the beautiful and ideal but the ugly and broken places of humanity as well. Although I was not able to accomplish plans as originally choreographed, I approached my sabbatical research and scholarship with the spirit of these goals and ideas in mind. of Place and Time
#2 (american standard) archival pigmented inkjet on washi paper, crown molding, hand-built ceramic with tinted porcelain and underglaze surfacing 96 x 24 x 4 inches
I began digitally scanning old family photos with particular attention to the time period just before my birth and through my first seven years in Watsonville, California on San Juan Road and the greater Bay Area. If I could not travel externally, I would move inward and explore my relationship to my past. This process also helped
IMAGES COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR
by JOSEPH MADRIGAL, Associate Professor of Art
Joseph Madrigal to shape my shifting perspectives on concepts of "space/time" and re-placing them with a developing appreciation of "place/time." Space is cold and empty; theoretical. Place is warm, populated, and storied; experiential. Family photographs emerge as useful means to play through these ideas. Snapshots of particular times in the places my family occupied in the home, out in the landscape, and all the interstitial places thereof like gardens, patios, driveways, and decks. to Wonder and Wander I went on daily walks around Decorah with special attention paid to our "natural" prairie and woodland places. These walks became purposeful in the gathering and collection of flowers. These flowers were systematically pressed, dried, and then digitally scanned. The Fall 2021/Agora
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