One of the things that troubles me about our society is our addiction towards consumption. We feverishly devour the natural world around us, manufacturing things we desire, and yet over time the things we create invariably infiltrate and disrupt the balance of the ecosystem. We never seem satiated, always wanting to consume more and more. I fear it will be the end of us.
A few years ago I created a painting inspired by the German Romantic artist Casper David Friedrich and his work Wanderer Above the Mist c. 1818. I replaced Friedrich’s lone figure gazing upon sublime nature with a series of billboards sprouting from a dystopic landscape of endlessly sprawling freeways and piles of garbage. My painting, called The Land of Plenty, was meant as a critique of our hyper-consumerist society and the impact we have upon the landscape.
After completing my painting, however, I thought my concept might have greater impact if it were a wide panorama. Therefore I made a graphite drawing on a large sheet of paper as a preparatory study for a much larger painting. The vista would be similar as before, but broader, with contrails crisscrossing the sky. I initially thought to have a single figure near the center of my composition, similar to Friedrich’s painting, but I then realized I could depict the foreground in such a way to allow my audience to become that witness instead.
I wanted my painting to be massive. But as large canvases tend to be difficult to transport, I decided to build a multi-panel painting rather than a single canvas. I already had a quantity of 48 inch stretcher bars in my studio, so I constructed three 4x4 foot canvases to function as a triptych. And since this was too wide for an easel, I placed the canvases on milk crates stacked against the studio wall.
I then began painting. I started by giving my canvas a wash of transparent yellow for a golden glow. I then gradually built up a complex scene, adding freeways, billboards, and of course, lots and lots of cars.
My goal was to create a landscape that looked simultaneously beautiful and disturbing. To help with this aim, I chose a warm color palette that seemed alluring, and yet somewhat sickly. I also added details that I hoped would reinforce the disquieting mood of the scene.
If you looked closely at the painting, you would see that every billboard displayed the word MORE. The entire scene would be an endless exhortation to consume. Ironically, however, the billboards stand upon mountains of discarded objects, cast off by a populace that has no more use for them.
I call this painting The Promised Land. The billboards may promise fulfillment, but it is actually a promise of our destiny. This bleak landscape of excess and waste, a sprawling metastasis upon the natural landscape, is the terminus for a civilization that has continually sought to consume everything in sight.
