Anthony Vega

I always loved over-head projectors in grade school. The lights would be turned down in the room, the hum of the warm motor was soothing. Everything seemed to stop as we marveled at this glowing piece of education equipment.  And then there was this drawing the teacher would make. To illustrate something that needed more than chalk and a blackboard. It was special and it was strangely intimate. These illuminating marks would shine larger at the front of the room and we would watch it being made and hopefully "see" what was being explained.

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I think houseplants are so strange. Its like nature, contained. It is this weird dominance of care, beauty and potential failure. We all think about having a plant, a way to prepare us for taking care of something. Or we like plants and want to make our home more attractive. Or we neglect these ideals and have a brown sad twig that hasn't been watered for months.

I got this idea to make a kind of illuminating diagram of these plants. To connect the beauty and hope to their absurdity. Much like the technologically outdated over-head projector. So I made some work that combined these ideas.