Designing the Final Layer

Visually-speaking, there were so many better options to include in Montana’s space. Something had to be done, and it wasn’t going to be easy. Trying to peel or cut off the timeline proved fruitless. Ultimately, I decided to sand it off.

After an hour or so of playing heavy metal and aggressively sanding (no video taken of this effort, unfortunately…), I exorcized the timeline from the piece and used deep green acrylic paint to cover the background. Once the paint dried, I added the title on cardboard and the helicopter, nailing down detective lines to connect it to the release sites. At long last, the collage was complete!

Once this website was created, CDIL and I designed a QR code to be included on the artist’s statement, connecting the physical collage to this digital space.

You may be thinking, “Wow, this process was probably a lot harder than writing a paper….Was it worth it?”

Yes. Yes it was. I would go as far to say that this process was as complex and messy as wolf reintroduction itself, and maybe that’s the point. This controversy has no easy answers, and it needs a lot of work, collaboration and creativity to solve. Sometimes the right way–at least, the way my passion led me–isn’t the easy way. But it’s worth it, the journey of growth, creation and experimentation.