When going through an old sketch book, I came across some notes from March of 2000. The notes basically talk about an experience I had in a printmaking studio on one day when, strangely, nobody else was using the press. I had made two small etching plates of these goofy looking houses. The reason I made the goofy looking houses was because this is around the time that McMansions were being built at a record pace. These houses always looked so strange to me because they were over sized homes on way too small lots. Nothing like the big beautiful stately mansions you see with lovely grounds and mature trees that can be seen on the Philadelphia Main Line and other areas of the country.
So with the press all to myself, I embarked on a frantic pace of inking and printing these etching plates on pieces of very tiny paper. The irony of this mad printing session was how I was banging out these etchings as quickly as developers seemed to be building them and the very small pieces of paper sort of mimicked the very small lots on which these houses were being built. I no longer have the plates, or any of the prints that came from this session as they were very poor quality (and I also have to wonder about the quality of those homes!)
Anyway, the other part of this story is how suburbs have become more than just bedroom communities. As more people moved out of the city, companies soon followed as well as recreational activities and shopping. It seems that the suburbs became more crowded than the cities. The above sketch was my interpretation of where the suburbs were headed.
Diane Podolsky 