Cynthia Daignault

Light Atlas

In 2014, Daignault embarked on a five month road trip following the outer perimeter of the continental United States. Light Atlas functions as a portrait of the land she encountered.

Daignault realized that although numerous male artists had famously taken cross-country trips in the name of their art, the story of a woman undertaking a similar creative adventure had yet to be told. She stopped about every 27 miles, capturing the view from her truck window with a sketch or a photograph.

Daignault used these images to create the 360 canvases of Light Atlas, which reference the 360 degrees of a complete circle. The paintings all depict springtime scenes in order to establish a sense of new life. This consistent tone allows the work to present the factories, farms, rivers, deserts, cities and forests of the United States in a unified and hopeful light.