This is worked from a photo I took in the Glen Canyon Dam area in 2004. I'm sure the water level is even lower 10yrs later. I featured this landscape in my Future Primitive project being taken by the nearly all rock landscape.
I've been fascinated with man-made infrastructure in natural locations since back when I was reading everything J.G. Ballard. Industrial imprint on landscape seems almost natural and honest. I get a sort of "It is what it is," feeling from it. At the same time, something as large as the dam still seems as transitory as any other natural system, like the fracturing and erosion of the surrounding rock formations. I'm still not sure what it means. The image could be read as a 60's triumph of technology over nature. The image could be read as a warning considering the obvious lowered water level.
There are monumental energies stored in this place. The hovering glyphs I see as Earth powered in an elemental language. I pioneered a new technique in this painting. Brush marks in a cross hatching method usually reserved for drawing. I've started on a new painting which continues the theme with a number of radio and television transmitting towers in landscape.
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| "Triax Prima" by Tom Baumgartner, 32" x 16" oil on panel. |
