Artist and photographer, Marlayna Demond creates abstract photos of strangely beautiful patterns and otherworldly scenes from weathered concrete, asphalt and man-made interventions on the environment. Sidewalkscapes invites you to become lost in the beauty in our everyday routes, and to consider our impact and connection to our surroundings and each other.

Over several years of photographing these eye-catching patterns on the ground, a series of ethereal “landscapes” grew. Creating each piece became a ritual the artist could get lost in; losing a sense of specificity, sometimes forgetting exactly where or when they were found. Many were photographed along a familiar loop in the artist’s suburban neighborhood. Something as simple as the existence, or sometimes lack of, a sidewalk stirred reflections on the access these paths provide and determine. Where else could we be, or go? Who gets to decide? What does access really look like? What better futures can we imagine?

Drawn to glittering salt crystals, light dancing across the pavement, residual snow and fuel stains, finding and capturing sidewalkscapes became an obsession. As if each one became more proof, “I walked past this place and existed there, and I noticed something ephemeral.” 

Sidewalkscapes reminds us to observe and savor small slices of our lives and our collective history. They represent places you’ve passed a hundred times or only once in your life. Playing with scale and light, some are as disorienting as they are comforting, each simultaneously unique but universal. It could be along a familiar and frequent route, that each day is subjected to gradual changes and wear. A passage of time is marked by layers on the concrete. The land shifts, creates cracks to be patched. 

As much as we strive for control over the environment, we similarly seek out proof that our existence is meaningful. And it is, in the countless ways we impact each other and our landscapes. Our sliver of time is long and too brief, and is important to everyone we’re sharing it with. So much exists behind and in front of us, but we’re a part of this layer now, and we can still create ripple effects stretching out further than we can comprehend.

Sidewalkscapes is a loving meditation that invites the viewer to pause and take notice of the patterns and rhythms of the otherwise mundane, while considering how connected we are to each other and the environment we attempt to influence.