I’m excited to re-visit my CITYscape series for my next project.
A consistent theme in my work is finding moments of urban beauty. My REFLECT series explores the impact of urban line, rhythm and materials at close range. CITYscape takes a more distant vantage point to see the natural composition of city skylines. Buildings at a distance become rhythms and repetitions, abstracted from the detailed richness of windows and architectural elements. Skyline views generally highlight a city’s connection with the natural world. Water, urban forests and sky balance the repetitive and segmented built world.
CITYscapes first started with work I made as visuals for a book on Marcel Proust and the neuroscience of smell. I created Proust’s village of Combray with rudimentary building forms, approaching them as a sort of font. They read as an ambiguous grayscale font in the first piece and then bloom into a full color memory of the village in the second.
MADELEINES | CITYscape as font
COMBRAY | CITYscape as font
The next commissioned project for a lobby in downtown Evanston features the city’s urban forest and connects to the building’s foliage inspired architectural ornamentation. The imaginary city composition features Lake Michigan’s blues in tech inspired graphic lines.
CITYscape Evanston | commission for building lobby 2@30”x30” hand cut glass and concrete c Heather Hancock 2015
In 2016 I created an imaginary San Diego skyline for placement in a healthcare facility. The buildings evolved to be composite forms based on actual San Diego downtown buildings. A lush palette of grass+lime green and turquoise+peacock blue connects with the space colorways.
CITYscape San Diego skyline 3@24”x24” | hand cut glass and concrete c Heather Hancock 2016
The next CITYscape project completed in 2018 features silhouetted buildings from the San Francisco skyline with simple facade detailing. The background “sky” was inspired by a gum tree leaf form and cut in iridized green/blue glass to create a shimmery dual purpose forest+sky.
CITYscape San Fran 3@24”x24” | hand cut glass and concrete c Heather Hancock 2018
I am now working on a CITYscape project based on the Upper West Side skyline as seen from Central Park reservoir. At 4’x3’, these 3 panels allow much more intricate architectural elements and segments. I love the idea of using glass as a stand in for natural, dynamic/reflectant elements. The foregrounded water in this project will be a shimmery reflection of tree and buildings. Lighter grout and a painted sky create additional new creative opportunities for this project. Check back for WIP updates. Or follow along on Instagram @heatherhancock.art.studio
drawing | CITYscape 3@4'x3’ c Heather Hancock 2020
detail of CITYscapeNYC 3@48”x36” | hand cut glass + paint c Heather Hancock 2020
detail of CITYscapeNYC 3@48”x36” | hand cut glass + paint c Heather Hancock 2020