Melissa Hidalgo - My Love, Our Public Lands

This first semester of the MAE program has been inspiring due to the readings we have had. These readings have felt personal and heartfelt. These readings have also gotten us to speak and respond on a personal level. A part of it for me has to do with the fact that I don’t have to open up to you all in person. This last year I’ve realized that I have a problem with not being able to open up to people, not even the people closest to me, but especially not face to face. I’ve been getting better at trusting my opinions, thoughts, and other people with them. This class felt easy for me to open up to, not only because it’s an online class but how safe Future and all you make it feel.

One of the biggest things I got from our readings was creating something with meaning and action. Since I started teaching, I have felt like I have forgotten what it is to make art for me and most importantly as a way to express thoughts about something I feel strongly about. Currently, it’s the protection of our public lands. Last week, I realized how important it is for me to speak up for something I love and find peace from. The outdoors is a place that needs our protection and not to let it be taken by greedy people for money and corporate goals.

My project is still a working idea. I want to get people to see the beauty and importance of our public lands and has them feeling something when it gets destroyed.  I’m still not sure how I would like to improve on this but I started experimenting with my students on ways to manipulate an inkjet photograph after it’s been printed. I decided to take some of my landscape photographs (that were taken at public lands) and sort of destroy them to where only the impression of a landscape was left. I would love if anyone had ideas or opinions on this ideas.