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 really am a painter, not a sculptor, but sometimes it’s fun to create painted objects, things that take up a bit more space in the world like this You Bag for example. And painting all the sides and angles of a three dimensional piece is a good challenge, like with this double-sided portrait bag or with Paula Bunyan’s Pine Nut Planting Pouch.

Below is the subject’s answer to this question: what does it mean to be an American?

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