Suzanne Scott Constantine and
Lynne Scott Constantine, 2020
mixed media assemblage on birch wood blocks, 16″ x 20″ x 3″

(Suzanne) This collaborative artwork includes hand-made papers, origami, collage, and found art. The 18 3”x3” wood blocks contain individually hand-drawn maps of the Outer Banks, with a focus and point of light on Point Harbor, where we live. First, I covered the blocks with treated National Geographic papers; then I placed them on Masonite board also covered with treated National Geographic papers. On top of two of the blocks are Lynne’s handmade origami boats made with fibrous and porous paper, creating flawed vessels. The concept behind this work is that there are many different Outer Banks, each one with a different point of light, and all are placed within a national and international context because we all share the land and its history. We live on stolen land for which we are stewards. We are attached to it and to each other.
(Lynne) Each person has a private map of the Outer Banks—no two experiences of place are the same. Memory, life experience, one’s knowledge of the area’s history and of the world of its indigenous inhabitants, engagement with the natural world as it once was and as it is now, all shape our sense of what this extraordinary place is and means. I contributed the small red and white origami boats to this piece to represent our attempts to connect with each other’s islands, twinkling with points of light that signify our heart-homes.