Tarun Dani
Sunday, December 3rd, 2006Around the US in 18 years! Oh and India
Over the years, my family history has largely been shaped by adventure. We have traveled to many places together to visit other relatives and spend quality time. Despite, this travel, I have only been to a few places, often visiting one particular place. My journeys have mostly been within the boundaries of the United States, except once, when I was five years old and I took a trip to Delhi, India.
My collage consists of various pieces of fabric that have unique shades of colors. My idea behind the collage was to show the difference in my travels through different shades of color. For example, I cut out the replica of the United States in black fabric. Despite the regions that are in different colors, the black territory symbolizes the places that I have yet to explore with my family. This decision would make the brighter colors seem more intense, accentuating their different shades. The water all around the land is actually purple fabric. I chose this color because it also a place in the world, which I haven’t taken a journey through. So instead of choosing black or blue, I decided to combine the two and create dark-shaded oceans.
I based the colors of each region on the number of times I visited those particular areas. In order to show the difference, I decided to choose a bright strong color to show where I visited often and a light color to show where I visited least. As you can tell from the collage, the Northeast is in a bright red color, since it is an area where I’ve visited the most and it is also the location where I reside. The second color on the list is actually Florida, assigned a lighter color of pink, because it is the next most frequent vacation location for my family. My aunt has been living in Tampa, Florida for many years, long before I was born, and it’s my favorite place to visit. The green color in Texas is actually the third most frequently visited place because I have visited Houston a few times, to see my uncle. The last color that you can see is a faint light yellow color that outlines a country away from the United States. This land mass represents a portion of India, Delhi, which I only visited once in my life.
All in all, this collage represents the journeys my family and I have taken in the 18 years of my life. I believe that the shades of the colors accurately describe the importance of certain locations to my family and to me. In the next 18 years I hope to be able to color up more of this map and reduce the black or dark areas.
