The Atomic Babylon paintings are deeply personal yet globally relevant. Using art to raise awareness or raise funds is not new. Art is often used as a window to the past of what specific generations or societies felt worthy of memorializing on canvas to preserve for future generations. Frontline communities are acutely aware how the development of global nuclear weapons and energy industries have left their marks and scars upon the land, sea and upon humanity.
Bab·y·lon
"Refers to a place of captivity and the power structures that keeps them there."
"Refers to a place of captivity and the power structures that keeps them there."
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TRINTY & BEYOND
The invisible nature of ionizing radiation (iR) disguises the real impacts to those exposed anywhere along the fuel-chains, testing, waste and/or accidents. The ongoing generational impacts and need for resources and acknowledgment of the unintended consequences to global frontline families and communities. Lady Justice stands atop "Fat Man", one of the two bomb designs used in 1945 against Japan to end the war. Civil Cold Warriors 20"w x 40"h | oil on canvas | going to fundraiser | auction > TBA |
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LAB RATS
Military hospital waiting rooms were more than familiar to me until I aged out of the system at 21 years old. Pushed into a civilian medical environment unable to discuss the known impacts to my body of ionizing radiation, but under an inherited "Q clearance" unable to discuss it under penalty of 10 years jail time and a staggeringly prohibitive fine. The Waiting Room 24"w x 24"h | oil on canvas | going to fundraiser | auction > TBA |
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YOU ARE NOT ALONE, WE SEE YOU.
From blowing holes in the atmosphere, to knowingly irradiating countless service personnel, then denying and abandoning their medical needs. Destroying the lives and lands of indigenous peoples, then leaving millions of tons of radioactive test debris in their wake. The Enewetak Atoll Cleanup Veterans and the people of the Republic of the Marshall Islands know all too well, there is no simple solution to "cleaning this up." That 'leaking dome in the pacific' is a 27,000 year problem, that is simply getting demonstrably worse in the 30 short years ago it was created too 'contain' it. The exposed Marshallese, Atomic Test Veterans and their descendants worldwide are facing transgenerational impacts to their families, many of which, like mine, have been suffering in silence due to the nature of the security levels required during the test era and beyond. The risks to the planet from the leaking dome and the resulting damaged DNA and birth defects are a legacy that should not be forgotten. New genetic testing can help identify risks not previously detectable and it is time patients and victims worldwide to explore emerging healthcare options. Pacific Proving Grounds Operation Ivy-Mike Test Blast LaCross Test Lagoon Crater Runit Dome (Cactus Test Blast Crater) Lady Justice Lady Justice stands atop Runit Dome Unintended Consequences 24"w x 36"h | oil on canvas | going to fundraiser | auction > TBA |
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MORNINGS OF THE TWO SUNS
Most atomic tests in the Pacific Proving Grounds (PPG) were conducted around sunrise for optimum atmospheric conditions. In many conversations, particularly with island elders, the reference to "mornings of the two suns" had no real visual reference in most of the phots I'd ever seen of atomic testing. I have no photo credit for the rare reference photo I used for this painting. The ship is the U.S.S. ESTES, Command Ship designed specifically for the off-shore tests and commissioned in 1951. My father, The Chief, would be RMC/Communications and Crypto Specialist attached to "The Elegant Lady" for the duration of the atomic tests and her service in the theater of operations through 1959 A well documented Atomic Veteran, I was warned at age 12 I had inherited his damaged DNA and to expect my future cancers to "track like his". Watching him slowly succumb to the impacts of ionizing radiation for the next 23 years was daunting. Being required to do it in silence with no guidance or support for my inherited impacts are things I'm only now being able to process more fully. The impacts to my families public and private lives have certainly influenced the surrealist nature of some of my paintings. Into the Mythic 18"w x 24"h | oil on canvas | going to fundraiser | auction > TBA in-progress photo |
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MORNINGS OF THE TWO SUNS
Inspired by The Human Shadow exhibit in Tokyo, the images left etched in stone in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb “Little Boy” detonated 1,900 feet above the city. A flash of brilliant, boiling light scorched all that it touched. The surface of the bomb burned 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit and anything within 1,600 feet of its blast zone was incinerated in an instant. The heat from the explosion was so intense, in fact, that it also bleached everything in its blast zone, leaving eerie nuclear shadows of human detritus where citizens once were. Atomic Shadows 12"h x 24"w | oil on canvas | going to fundraiser | auction > TBA |
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MAKING THE INVISIBLE, VISIBLE.
The first painting directly reflecting on the bond shared only with my father and the atomic cloud that overshadowed over our family, The nucleus of an atomic blast hangs suspended in air between The Chief and I, like the secret we were forced to share. The influences and ripple effects permeated every aspect of our lives, and theirs long before I was born into a household that was operating 'above top secret' before I was born. Life at times seemed as twisted as a strand of DNA and as surreal as Alice living in an Atomic Wonderland. Atomic Babylon 24"w x 30"h | oil on canvas | SOLD |
