Wave Hill Park was my inspiration for this art book. This park was created in the late 1800s as a summer estate and the following summers after its completion names like Mark Twain and Theodore Roosevelt have stayed here for their leisure. Today, Wave Hill Park serves as a public park and garden for those in the community. Walking around for my first time I felt transported into a whimsical realm. Its beautiful gardens, filled with a vast variety of exotic plants and flowers, along with the view of the Hudson and the adjacent Palisades gave the feeling of utter romanticism. That being said, Wave Hill Park is a popular wedding location for many couples wishing to share their union with loved ones.
This idea of weddings became curious to me as I considered my own interest with marriage. In the United States the divorce rate is higher than it has ever been. The experience of my parents divorce is something that has given me clues as to why this is something that has become a common amongst the average household. Marriage simply doesn’t mean what it used to. The access to such high speed communicated today is pushing relationships to move much faster, and in most cases, lead with the end result of a false understanding of who each other. Even though more and more people choose not to take the wedding path, those who do go down that route do so because of what it resembles. From my understanding, marriage is a union with another that makes a couple a whole, a team. To me, this sounds like something that takes a lot of time with and without another to figure out.
The quote overlaying my painting is one written by Mark Twain during his time at Wave Hill Park. He wrote this as a description of the Palisades and his own feelings toward it. To me this quote sounded like an epic vow of love that could be said to ones partner at their wedding. What Mark Twain described is something I believe should be felt and had been felt between a couple if they choose to share their lives together.
This piece resembles the tie between the lust and beauty of both a wedding and Wave Hill Park.