BOOM DAYS
Over the last several years I have painted images of rocks and water that relate to the history of mining in Colorado. These works contrast the orderliness of the grid with the organic patterns of rock and water.

Some of these paintings are exacting representations of rocks used in Leadville’s ‘Boom Days’ celebrations during which miners compete to demonstrate their drilling skills. Several of these overlay a regular taped grid from my painting process on the rougher grid of numbered squares painted on the actual rocks as part of the drilling competition. The double grids can be read as alluding to topography, the gridding out of the surveyed land, numbered claims and mined and un-mined sections of the landscape.