Legacy - What is the West?

$860.00

48” x 47”

Original mural: Photo montage print on e-panel

Hanger-free and customizable for any hanging or framing system. Weatherized and suitable for indoor or outdoor display.

Artist Statement: What is the West?  It’s the kitsch romanticism of  Indians, teepees and the iconic bison, once thirty million strong we’ve managed to slaughter nearly out of existence, or the town in Eastern Oregon where the broken sawmill languishes, while the preacher on the radio bellows out fire against homosexuality, as if the advancing hordes of Gay Visigoths are about to invade this dying town in the middle of nowhere. Still the preacher goes on smearing his lies all over the poverty, the abandoned buildings, because Georgia–Pacific or Boise Cascade paid good money to cut down the trees then moved on to cut down the rest of the West.

 What is the West?  The remains of a past where Elk and Bear exist only as names on the streets of some Roundup sprayed suburb killing everything wild.  The place where forests are wood products, wildlife is game waiting to be ‘harvested,’ and the good rich earth underfoot, mineral resources ready to be upturned. The place where copper once bought a state and the rush to gold, a century and a half ago, condemned rivers and creeks to an eternity of arsenic and mercury. It’s the place where acquisition is the password, unlocking the secret to the Golden Calf. It’s Google and Apple, Microsoft and Uber, Hollywood and Biotech. It’s sustainable, pastured and artisanal, all for a price­-- a price you can’t afford if you’re living in a tent under the freeway in the most expensive town in the richest nation in the world.

What is the West? It’s the Yin and the Yang, the Dark and the Light. It’s the vortex of new ideas and the graveyard of a failed myth unwilling to be buried because here in the Bootstrap West that myth must be protected, no matter the price.

Meet Barbara

48” x 47”

Original mural: Photo montage print on e-panel

Hanger-free and customizable for any hanging or framing system. Weatherized and suitable for indoor or outdoor display.

Artist Statement: What is the West?  It’s the kitsch romanticism of  Indians, teepees and the iconic bison, once thirty million strong we’ve managed to slaughter nearly out of existence, or the town in Eastern Oregon where the broken sawmill languishes, while the preacher on the radio bellows out fire against homosexuality, as if the advancing hordes of Gay Visigoths are about to invade this dying town in the middle of nowhere. Still the preacher goes on smearing his lies all over the poverty, the abandoned buildings, because Georgia–Pacific or Boise Cascade paid good money to cut down the trees then moved on to cut down the rest of the West.

 What is the West?  The remains of a past where Elk and Bear exist only as names on the streets of some Roundup sprayed suburb killing everything wild.  The place where forests are wood products, wildlife is game waiting to be ‘harvested,’ and the good rich earth underfoot, mineral resources ready to be upturned. The place where copper once bought a state and the rush to gold, a century and a half ago, condemned rivers and creeks to an eternity of arsenic and mercury. It’s the place where acquisition is the password, unlocking the secret to the Golden Calf. It’s Google and Apple, Microsoft and Uber, Hollywood and Biotech. It’s sustainable, pastured and artisanal, all for a price­-- a price you can’t afford if you’re living in a tent under the freeway in the most expensive town in the richest nation in the world.

What is the West? It’s the Yin and the Yang, the Dark and the Light. It’s the vortex of new ideas and the graveyard of a failed myth unwilling to be buried because here in the Bootstrap West that myth must be protected, no matter the price.

Meet Barbara

We appreciate your support of the Allez program and Allez artists. Please understand your purchase is a weather-resistant outdoor art piece displayed in an urban environment for public enjoyment for the duration of the exhibit. Normal wear and tear of an outdoor art piece should be expected. There are special inherent risks, such as, mother nature, accidents, vandalism that could compromise the artwork. Allez will make every effort to protect the work during exhibition and will be available “as is” at the conclusion of the exhibit.