Todd Van Fleet: Artist's Statement

 

There was a time in everyone’s life when riding a bike meant freedom; relaxing at whatever little oasis you could pedal off to. That feeling inspires me to create Bicycle Landscapes: photographs of graceful American landscapes accented with the timeless form of vintage cruiser bicycles.

 

Bicycles embody a carefree lifestyle of well-being. To ride a bike is to be revitalized with the joy of childhood: the wind in your hair, the natural world at your fingertips. And yet, for all this, a bicycle is calming; a respite from highways, rush hours, and talk radio.

 

Bicycle Landscapes highlight the true vibrancy of color and texture in our world, enhanced by the human patterns, color, and form intrinsic to a bicycle. Each bicycle determines its own landscape. Each bicycle carries its own echo of adventure. Traditional landscapes focus only on the beauty in nature, Bicycle Landscapes offer a unique vision of the beautiful connection between humans and the natural world.

 

Bicycle Landscapes are a call to leave behind the sidewalk, leave behind the mundane and step into the peaceful wonder of our world. The bicycle in each photograph moves me to imagine escaping the stress of life to breathe deeply of an aspen forest, to splash playfully around a waterfall, or to stand silently in awe of the mountains of Colorado. Who rode to that far-flung mountain? That flower-specked meadow? Why not me?