When I first was working with paper pulp as the medium for my pieces, my first impulse was to mark up the surface.  I worked horizontally, Flat on the table, tearing and marking the wet pulp.  The pulp is free to be pushed and manipulated. Showing the essence of the fiber became a statement about landscape.

They were a topographical map where no side was up.  Many of these pieces were earth-pigmented red sheets with buff or ochre surface skin. The underlying paper only appeared in the rift or where humans had made their mark.

In the 1978 book "Papermaking" by Jules Heller, the author wrote:  "If you have ever wondered about the surface quality of unknown, strange planets in our galaxy (including the one we inhabit), that sense of wonder can be curiously satisfied on examination of this recent work by John Babcock. Babcock's two and occasionally, three-layered portraits of faults and fissures in the crust of Space-ship Earth cannot but remind you of micro San Andreas Faults, especially if you are aware of and sensitive to the topography of California."