crumpled atlanta

After living in and around Atlanta my whole life, I have dreamed of moving away many times.  For whatever reason, I've stayed.  (And stayed and stayed).  I have watched the landscape change over and over again, institutions crumble, new businesses come and go, and a community of Atlanta natives bond over memories of our favorite haunts.

I have a love/hate relationship with this city.  Everything about it is paradoxical to me.

It's old, but it's really so new.
It's the called the city in the trees, and I'm sure if those old oaks could talk they'd have stories to tell long before there was a city.
It's histories are riddled with sadness and segregation, and yet I am proud of it's progress and hope.

It's the least southern city around, but the ghosts of the Civil War are at every turn.
We seem to value all the right and wrong things.

I wish change for the city, but not necessarily in the way it's changing.

I dream of moving away to better places, but I can't ever think of where that would be.

But I'm fickle.

. . .


A few weeks ago, we launched a new project with a group of very talented folks here.  The project was inspired by the Oscar Wilde quote, "Some things are more precious because they don't last long."

I knew this was a brilliant starting point for this group of artists because everything seems to be fleeting, especially as you age.  Documentation becomes less aesthetic and more fundamental as you see days turn to weeks turn to years turn to... sigh.

And that's how this project-within-a-project idea was hatched.  I found out that Manuel's Tavern was sold, and my heart sank.  (Obama even played darts there a week ago).  Even though the Maloof family will still be running the operations, it felt like a significant end of an era moment.  I've eaten there countless times with my father as a kid and then again when we lived a few doors down after having my first child.  And it's just one of many places that are being bought and sold around town.

So I hope to preserve the changing landscape in my miniature paper renderings of some iconic Atlanta landmarks of past and present.

I'm calling it 'Crumpled Atlanta'.


. . .

My goal is to make a papier maché monument every week and post it at becausetheydontlastlong.com and here.  

I have a nice long running list of places I'm looking forward to making (and my work cut out for me), but if you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them.

 I started with the Clermont because, duh.  And a little paper Blondie was necessary.