Chris Drury

Chris Drury (http://www.hiram.edu/faculty/newsandevents/harbinger/archives/092805.html)

While searching for landscape architects online, I stumbled upon the work of land artists, and fell in love with Chris Drury’s work. He is an artist who works only with natural materials, and his art interacts with his environment. I was attracted to him by his message, to investigate the connection between man and nature. His works are connected to the surrounding landscape, like the redwood vortex, which is made around a huge redwood tree in Northern California. He also compares human anatomy to nature, comparing the circulatory system to the great spiraling root work of a tree.

Cloud Chamber for the Trees and Sky (http://www.ncmoa.org/artnc/theme.php?themeid=1)

Chris Drury is a land artist, meaning he makes both solo works of art and commissioned works in landscapes world-wide. He often makes works for colleges and public areas internationally. He also makes art for individuals and for solo exhibitions. The average education of an artist or sculptor is a bachelor's degree in fine arts. The average land artist makes about $48,000 yearly, but more skilled artists make more. With an average salary of an artist being $48,000, most artists live in lower middle class.

Chris Drury was born in 1948, in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He got a bachelor's in Arts and Design from Camberwell College of the Arts and a bachelor's in Sculpture from University of the Arts in London. He got into his career when he hiked through the Colorado Rockies in 1975. It started when he started building small shelters and art pieces on his hikes in the Rockies. This evolved in to larger art pieces later on, and he fell in love with the art after that. His first professional work was 'Medicine Wheel' which he did in 1981.

Slate Whirlpool (http://creative.ly/search/q/slated?size=normal)

"I looked at the varied works he had created both indoors and outside and was struck by the many layers of meaning that lay within his creations and how each one of them encouraged a dialogue by asking questions of the viewer 'What's going on here? What's important? What lasts and what is ephemeral? How do we leave our mark on Nature and how does Nature leave its marks on us? How does this reflect what's going on in my life or in the world at large?" (River Stories.) Chris Drury contributes many works of art in many different cultures, especially in his solo work. His art aims to make people think, think about their connection to nature and natures place in modern culture. Many times his works are put in prominent social areas, parks, college campuses, and so on to show as many people as possible the connection between microcosm and macrocosm. His job has given him the opportunity to touch many people with his art and message, and improve society, both in an aesthetic sense and philosophical sense. In this age of going green, Chris Drury’s all natural art has large appeal, meaning his message has even more reach than the original land art movement of the 60’s.

Though I don’t necessarily want to be strictly an artist, I will take Chris Drury’s message and method and infuse it into my work. I hope to go through high school taking AP or IB classes as well as a photography class to help me into college. I hope to go to a local college, possibly UC Berkeley, to get my degree in Architecture, with a minor in Botany to help me use natural elements in my work. I hope through my work as a landscape architect I can use natural elements and structures in my work as well as exposing the people I work with to Chris Drury’s message. I also hope to use green elements in my life, both at home and in my every day, use solar energy for my house, use a hybrid car to get to work, etc. I hope I can use my Personal Career Hero to make myself a better person, as well as a better landscape architect.