Landscapes in Oil and Acrylic
A memorial piece to the Snow Geese that land in Berkeley Pitt, victims of climate change, the Anthropocene, the Capitalocene. A fairly small diptych, like an intimate religious icon. The cool and muted blue palette in the top half of the symmetrically balanced image contrasts with the dark, warm red at the bottom. From across the room, the static of birds blurs and blends into shapes of red, white, and blue. Up-close the detail reflects the masses of individual birds. The layers of paint create a dimensionality on the surface as the flock pulses above and below the water’s surface with rhythmic chaos. As an object and in composition the painting recollects Roman Catholic last judgement scenes without the Biblical characters. The image mutates the concept of baptism and the holy spirit to represent the martyrdom of the snow geese, the non-human souls whose deaths were a consequence of human-made disasters.