Cual es el Futuro de Nuestro rio? This question is posted on a battered postcard above the sink in my studio near the Duwamish River. It confronts me every time I turn on the water. The back of the card outlines issues of toxic clean up, which must be addressed to insure the future health of the river and its surrounds. This is a big question. My painting is about this question.

  I began the making of my river by laying down a rather beautiful watery blue/grey wash, in effect simulating the river in its original pristine state. Gradually I built up layers of thicker, muddier paint, in an attempt to replicate the river as it appears to me now.

  With the ground almost complete, I have begun to insert figures drawn in charcoal. The figures are selected from a series of quick pencil sketches of friends, family members, and complete strangers. This phase is the challenge I like best. I draw and redraw, and arrange and rearrange the shapes until I am satisfied with the scale and visual tension between forms, and the resulting conceptual intention as it begins to emerge. My river has now become very dark and muddy and I find myself attempting to make it more beautiful in places, perhaps needing to reassert the restorative, life sustaining purity of water.

Completed preliminary wash.