Yosemite National Park, California

In 1997, there were many projects to do at Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida. As a Sociology major and Art minor, I started to spend a lot of time in the art studios. I drew humungous drawings in charcoal of feet, avocados, and sweet potatoes and I was awarded the Fishback Art Scholarship for my drawings. I was also intetested in Anthropology, Human Evolution, Documentary Studies, and Sociology. I found all of these subjects could be explored through the feild of Studio Art with a focus on Conservation Science. 

I enrolled in an Environmental Literature class and enjoyed our National Park kayaking excursions. 

Although, I dedicated so much of my time to staring at the lakes and writing poetry, I still wanted to study practical applications of Environmental Science. 

So I decided to do an Adobe Photoshop project to express my passion for conservation as well as love for nature. 

With my photos from Yosemite, I combined my love for nature with my passion for digital art. This is where my Trees and Tech journey started. 

At the time, Rollins College allowed me to explore my love for digital art or computers as a medium. We were still learning how to email and post in a forum for class work discussions. So my digital vision was very new and innovative. I created an Independent Study and used Photoshop 4.0 to edit my photos of Yosemite. 

I introduced Rollins College's Art Department how to use Photoshop 4.0. and I received college credit for creating digital art! 

I gathered material for my Adobe Photoshop class project by hiking Yosemite National Park in California, during the summer of 1997 with my Rollins College friend, Sierra.

My views looked exactly like Ansel Adams' photographs of his Yosemite adventure. Nature had not changed. 

For my digital art project, I imagined the future of Yosemite National Park if humanity continued its current lifestyle. I scanned the photos of Yosemite, combined them with a scanned photo of some trash, a discarded green leather car seat in Tampa, Florida that I took. I used the photos of trash to represent the possible future if humans didn't stop trashing the plant world. 

I called it "Land Untouched" and juxtaposed the trash images with the beautiful scenes of Yosemite to prove a point. Humanity has to change their disposable lifestyle and to build awareness of environmental protection, and conservation science. 

With Photoshop's tool of cut and paste, I pasted the moss green car seat in the middle of a valley with Yosemite's stark grey mountains in the background to communicate the feeling of disdain, discord, and disappointment of the trash's harsh interruption. 

The trash was a violent discord to the harmony of Yosemite Valley. I hope I never see the day where humans have squatted or built on that land. 

I, too, am like Ansel Adams. I have read his quotes in the conservation science journals that he loved to see nature "untouched" and so do I. 

I love nature. I protect what I love. I conserve the plant world.