I started this painting about a year ago. I heard a phrase on the radio - I forget the context. "Mother Earth walks among her dead." Somehow, hearing this phrase immediately made me want to make a painting about it and this is what I came up with. An unidentified woman walks across a scorched and dead landscape, but reaches down to plant a little seedling.
In this first version, she walked on something that was supposed to look like lava with a few bones and a little trash strewn about. I wasn't sure where to go with it at all and the title didn't seem just right - too grim for a grim subject. Gradually, I eliminated the lava and put in more and more garbage. The more garbage I put in the more I liked it. Who knew that painting trash could be so much fun?
So here is the final (maybe) version. When I heard Garrison Keillor reading a poem by WS Mirwin on "The Writers' Almanac". I knew that I had the perfect title "On The Last Day Of The World, I Would Want To Plant A Tree." It suggests a ray of hope and faith in the restorative powers of nature to carry on with the world in spite of the damage we may do. I changed the posture of the woman just a bit, added some more trash and called it done.
24"x30" oil on canvas
