To correspond with the demerit badge Tree Carving, I created the wall hanging Vandalism in National Parks. This map shows the number of vandalism incidents from 2013 to 2015 in Western national parks. I used a sewing machine on the state and country borders and sewed the mountains and rivers by hand. I was thinking about how borders are defined by governments, the machine, whereas mountains and rivers are natural features. By sewing the mountains and rivers by hand, I made them more organic. Mimicking vandals who paint graffiti, defacing beautiful rock faces in national parks, I vandalized my map by painting the numbers in bright red on the white cloth.
Image credit: Vandalism in National Parks, 2019 | Fabric paint and thread on fabric | 17x12 inches