Hi! I thought I would share my story with you. My name is Amy Felder and this is a photo of me working at my kitchen table. Since I do not have a traditional studio space, I create most of my art within the comfort of my one bedroom apartment in Fort Collins, Colorado.
Ever since I was a child, I have always loved the outdoors. I grew up in the small town of Pacolet in SC where I spent long summer days playing outside. For undergrad, I chose to attend the College of Charleston solely because it was near the beach. After living in Charleston for 10 years, I actually grew tired of going to the beach and needed a change of scenery. In 2013, after marrying my husband, I moved to California where I got into backpacking and fell in love with national parks.
In December of 2015, I went on my biggest backpacking adventure through the Grand Canyon. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life and also one of the most rewarding. We hiked from the South Rim to the North Rim and back to the South Rim in 3 days. It was 45 miles and 20,000 ft in elevation change. Places like the Grand Canyon are sacred to me and I feel conflicted about wanting to visit them. When creating my work, I reflect on how these places face many threats, of which humankind is most imminent. It’s trips like these that have really influenced my work.
In recent years, park visitation has skyrocketed. According to the National Park Service, visitation to national parks reached a staggering 327.5 million visits in 2019, the fifth consecutive year where visits exceeded 300 million.[1] This led me to create Overcrowded. This installation piece explores the relationship between humans and nature as well as promotes conversation about human encroachment of public lands. I won Best in Show for Overcrowded in the Annual Student Exhibition at the University of Northern Colorado, where I recently earned my MA in Art & Design. For more images of Overcrowded, please click on Paradise Lost in the navigation bar.
[1] National Park Service, (2020, February 27). National Park Visitation Tops 327 Million in 2019. Retrieved from https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1207/2019-visitation-numbers.htm
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