Contact Zones: Travel Write Where You Are

ABOUT ME:

Danielle Foushée is author, designer, public artist, and professor at Arizona State University. She founded and directs Phoenix Mural Project, a documentary project that captures artists’ oral histories and grassroots visual expressions in the city. She is obsessed with the artistry of landscapes — any landscape. She’s especially interested in human-generated mark-making in the environment: buildings, roads, tunnels, and signs… petroglyphs, graffiti, and initials carved in aspen bark … forests burned, rows of corn, and victory gardens. Babydolls tied to fences. Gnomes on front porches. Stamps in concrete, and words on paper.

Here's a drawing I made of my spirit animal: the majestic desert bighorn sheep (above).

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ABOUT the CONTACT ZONES:

This series of essays looks at cultural storytelling through the lenses of travel writing and visual narratives in public places. I'll analyze cultural criticism, theories, concepts, and phenomena through my own personal experiences of travelling, intercultural exchange, and creative practice. My perspectives can't be separated from my identity as a white, female-identifying, middle-aged, middle-class, married, childless, and neurodivergent American who enjoys the privilege of geographic mobility. I don't write write with a faux-objective voice. No one can, despite what they might believe.