In November 2012, I moved from the east coast of the United States to California, a move that proved to be a difficult transition to make. In an effort to connect with my new surroundings and regain a sense of identity, I started a new series of self-portraits within the varying California landscape. In doing so, I came to ask questions not only of my own identity, but also of what it means as a female artist to engage with the land. The home is naturally considered the woman’s domain and the landscape has often been associated with ideas of freedom, either on a personal level or on a wider cultural and political level. In history man has conquered land, the place we call Mother Nature. In the Landscape merges body with the physical earth, breaking out of the domestic landscape, reconnecting with nature and confronting this new world I now call home.
Megan Shaughnessy 