A few months ago I began planning a painting of an immense open pit mine. My idea was to portray a deep gorge, terraced with roadways leading all the way to the bottom. This pit would be full of activity. Mining machinery would be drilling, blasting, and fracking the rock walls. Dozens of cranes would be hoisting supplies up and down the steep sides. Metal pipes would snake their way to the top, merging into a thicket of smokestacks and refineries. I wanted the space to feel so vast that it would resemble a bunch of ants scurrying around.
I put a 4x5 foot canvas onto my easel and got to work.
Unfortunately I soon realized my painting was not working as I wished. It felt too cartoonish. It didn’t have the grandeur or magnitude I wanted. So I stopped and proceeded to sketch out my idea to get a better sense of the roads and machinery, and the quality of light I was after.
This preparatory drawing made me realize my current canvas was MUCH too small. It would need to be twice as big to contain all the details I envisioned. I wanted my viewers to be overwhelmed by the immensity of the scene. This realization prompted me to stop working on what I had begun. However, after a few months of working on other projects, I reconsidered this decision. I figured since I had already invested time and energy into the painting, I might as well try and finish it, in spite of the deficient size. I could always attempt a larger version in the future.
I therefore reworked my painting to emulate my preparatory drawing. I also looked at the work of the artist Thomas Moran for reference. I liked how he could create drama in his paintings by varying the light and shadow within his landscapes. I tried to create a similar sense of drama in the gorge.
I call my painting Fool’s Gold. The term comes from the geologic mineral pyrite, which is an iron sulfide that superficially resembles gold. Sometimes when people discover a deposit of pyrite, they mistakenly believe they have struck it rich.
Fool’s Gold is an allegory about the folly of humans. We consume raw materials at an alarming rate, and we seem oblivious to the unsustainability of it all. We dig ever deeper in our frantic quest to consume more and more. Left unchecked, I fear we will be confronted by an unwelcome conclusion. We are in effect digging our own grave.
