Between You, Me, and the Sea

BETWEEN YOU, ME, AND THE SEA – “Between You, Me, and the Sea” is the artist’s third and longest video at 45 minutes. It is an animation about geography, landscape, art, and language depicted through drawing, color, and sound. One by one the animated abbreviations of the fifty states of the United States emerge out of a matrix of vertical, horizontal, diagonal, and curved lines whose shapes are filled in with bright colors. The sequence of creation of the states is determined by its alphabetical architecture, its typography, not history. The states ‘join the union’/take their place on the list based upon the geometry of the lines in their abbreviated names: slanted as in WV, vertical and horizontal as in FL, diagonal as in KY, and circular as in CO. Art, as expressed by the alphabet, meets Manifest Destiny. The continuous chugging sound of a train moving at full speed provides the audio, reinforcing the continuous movement of the animation.