Anthropocene Spring

After running through Nevada, Idaho, eastern Oregon and some of the most extremely deep and vertical canyons, the Owyhee River is captured in a manmade reservoir and turns into Lake Owyhee. The lake is in a region full of mountain ranges but it sits at an elevation of a little less than 2,200 feet. On the other side of its dam the river is allowed to run again until it reaches the confluence with the Snake River. Soon after, the Snake runs through Hells Canyon, a canyon deeper than the Grand Canyon. It’s an area rugged and remote with cold winters and blazing hot summers. When I was there it was March and the temperature would fluctuate between 65 degrees F during the day to barely 20 degrees at night. On one sunny afternoon it took only moments for high winds to bear down and bring with them 3 inches of hail and then return to comfortable sunshine within half an hour.

The Anthropocene is defined by Oxford Languages as “the current geological age, viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment”. The title seems fitting to me for an area where the flora and fauna have always needed to fight hard for survival and will need to fight even harder in the future. Harsh, but beautiful. Seemingly barren and yet full of life. These characteristics seemed to affect my color choices in this piece.  Treated with a clear gesso, the sky appears to be raw canvas, the natural warmth and simplicity of which contrasts against the cooler colors and rougher textures found in other areas of the composition. 

Anthropocene Spring is constructed as a scroll. The total size of the piece is 69”x34” and the center panel is 47”x34”. This past fall I posted about scrolls as a format for paintings, my fascination with them and their benefits such as ease of hanging, shipping and storing. 

See Landscapes, Taoism in Art and Hanging Scrolls.