Friday, October 8, 2010

Land Boat Press Release

What is Land Boat?

Land Boat is a writer/photographer team from Maryland on a Westward quest to find the American Dream. Matt Crooks and Annelies de Groot grew up on the water and are taking their live aboard knowledge to the road in a restored vintage travel trailer. They are spending at least the beginning of 2011 searching for the history, source and modern remodels of the classic American Dream theory.

The Trailer

The actual Land Boat is a 1973 Yellowstone travel trailer, 17 feet in length and several months in remodel. Matt and Annelies have documented the restoration on their blog at landboat.com. The interior has been restored and painted with a minimalist aesthetic and a boater’s needs, with a table that can be lowered into a second bed for visitors, bolted appliances, storage in every angle and no more aboard than necessary.

The People

Matt Crooks is a 2006 graduate of the Hallmark School of Photography. His style is pointed and active. His photos show you the inner focus of the skier mid-air, the childlike joy of the snowboarder at the peak of the pipe, and the deep creative attention of the woodworker. Matt knows how things work. He improves his environment with anything available, a creative knowledge he was born with and developed through taking everything apart. His varied jobs at a bronze foundry, a wooden boat shop, a mountain resort and in construction have taken this knowledge of functionality and focused it in on formation. He knows not only how something functions but what these functions can become. Matt’s skills in hacking objects, in pinpointing the usefulness of things, come from a deep awareness of an object’s potential and its components. This viewpoint of improvement and motion lend his photography an arresting dichotomy of intense peace among chaos, highlighting the one critical moment of stillness. The arena becomes a disaster zone, the winter beach a canvas for the surfer, and the a routine trick transforms into a performance in Matt’s photos. You can see his work at crooksphotography.com

Annelies de Groot has a BA in Liberal Arts from St. John’s College in Annapolis, MD. This great books, seminar style education has infused her writing with an institution of linear progress, researched background and depth in simplicity. Work in educational and environmental nonprofits, international law, health industry and sail making edge the intellectual academic mindset with a practical and experiential focus. Annelies’ successful writing history includes green living articles in local papers, grant awards for nonprofits, website and textbook content, speeches and health advice columns.

The Trip

Starting out from Maryland on the first week of January, Land Boat will head West. The rough plan reads counter clockwise around the country, chasing the winter. Hopping from family member to friend to campsite, Matt and Annelies will live out of the trailer and live in to their unexplored horizons of mountains, prairies and coastlines. Matt has taken several cross country road trips previously, but Annelies has little on-the-road experience. They will take turns pointing out to each other their favorite locations on the continent while visiting pertinent settings for the American Dream.

The Theory

The term “the American Dream” is a relatively new one, coined in1932. It refers to the dream of a citizen to work hard and provide a house and an opportunity to his children. However, the foundations of this concept are rooted long before the Great Depression. In fact, the entire nation is founded on these principles of freedom for change and a fight for financial stability. Combined with the romantic Western movement new iterations of those fundamental principles can be seen again and again. Colonists, Frontiersman, Gold Rushers, Hippies, the Tech Savvy, all have made their way to the sunset for another chance to live their life the way they want to. But has this changed? The new media claims the “American Dream” is dead. Is this simply because this recession has highlighted our inability to achieve financial stability? Is it because the “dream” of owning a house is now farther away than ever for most?

The new wave of organic, health-focused, minimalist lifestyles rings true to Matt and Annelies both in their values and in their quest for understanding the American Dream. Perhaps having lost sight of financial stability and social freedom in favor of excess and correctness our nation is fighting back. What do you think? Over the course of the trip the pair will be interviewing a series of people including those who have deeply inspired them with their well-known success and those who are deeply inspiring them with their quiet every day victories. A series of photo essays and analytical articles will appear on the Land Boat blog to illustrate with whom and where the American Dream is found.

Please send us an e-mail if you are interested in Land Boat. Send us your questions and suggestions to matt@landboat.com or annelies@landboat.com

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