Emergency Exit, 40" x 30", Oil on Panel, 2023

The arrival of railroads changed everything.  The most consequential single invention of the early industrial age, trains compressed time and space, giving people both unprecedented mobility and unprecedented ability to impact their environment. 

The steam engine reminds us of the relentless passage of all of our inventions into obsolescence.  I contrast these clanking beasts with the modern cities they made possible, the age of invention being replaced by the age of mass communication. 

The train also symbolizes the destructive reach of global warming into every corner of the world, even arctic landscapes long thought to be beyond the reach of the effects of cars and factories.  The red or black smoke of my arctic paintings suggests otherwise.