The Collapse (2010)

The Collapse is a big painting with an enormous story.  It is the story of captured peoples, greed, and soils saturated by centuries of systematic oppression.  I used a Hudson River school style of painting to capture the spirit of cotton blooms reaching up towards the burgeoning heavens and the lonely "blasted tree" of Thomas Cole land scapes.  This dramatic scene is ambiguous chaos, layered with hidden symbols of death, carnage, avarice and hope.