Paula Bunyan’s Pine Nut Planting Pouch (Austrian-American, Renate)

a female Paul Bunyan who plants trees instead of cutting them down — Gwenn Seemel
*Paula Bunyan’s Pine Nut Planting Pouch (Austrian-American, Renate)*
2008
acrylic on an oversized canvas pouch
34 x 23 x 10 inches

I asked each of the participants in Apple Pie to write something about what it means to be an American. This is Renate’s response.

What does it mean to be a citizen of the United States?

I had never given it much thought until Gwenn posed the question for this series of paintings.

Since I came from a very small country with a homogeneous population, I would rank the diversity, the size of the population AND the physical landscape as the most impressive features. The enormous size and what appeared to be limitless resources probably gave rise to the “Bigger is Better” motto personified by Paul Bunyan, the independent giant who changes the landscape with a swing of his ax.

That exuberant belief in large scale developments is now in question. The new Paul Bunyan, 100 years after his myth was born, would be more constructive. He would tend the environment. He would direct armies of workers towards repairing damage wrought by eager but short sighted development.

So what shall we call this updated Paul Bunyan, the preserver and thoughtful developer?

- Renate

Many of the participants in Apple Pie had no strong feelings about which American icon they’d like to embody for the series, but Renate did: she wanted to be a hero for eco-conscious living. Since the US didn’t have anyone to fit the bill—at least not someone on par with the Statue of Liberty or Superman—I made one up! I blended Renate’s likeness with the US’s legendary lumberjack to create Paula Bunyan, a giantess who plants trees at a prodigious pace instead of cutting them down.