My painting Snowshoeing introduces the human figure. The sole figure dwarfed by the towering Hallett Peak of Rocky Mountain National Park evokes a sense of solitude.
These three early paintings Snowshoeing, Point Reyes, and Grand Teton all portray an ideal image with little to no evidence of human presence when the reality is that these are all heavily visited places. The defeat of 2018’s ballot measure Proposition 112, which would have required “any new oil and gas development not on federal land to be set back at least 2,500 feet from home and ‘vulnerable areas’ like playgrounds, lakes, and rivers,” was a wake-up call to me. If a majority of society values money and the creation of jobs over the health of not only the environment but people as well, then I need to be more direct with the message my art communicates. While I continue to explore human relationships to the wilderness, I now create something quite different from these beginning idyllic landscapes.
Image credits:
Snowshoeing, 2018 | Acrylic on canvas | 36x24 inches
Point Reyes, 2018 | Oil on canvas | 46x38 inches
Grand Teton, 2017 | Oil on canvas (three panels) | 30x20 inches, 30x24 inches, 30x20 inches
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