You Know What You Should Do Too, 12’x 280’, 2020
Mural version 2. The first version completed in 2010 was sponsored by the EPA who gave me some light direction and themes to explore: be creative and consider the environment. When I began to rework it in 2020, I kept an open mind and let the design remain plastic. As a mural this size develops, the zeitgeist can’t help but seep in. This piece is not about banner year 2020, but rather 1980-2030. And although this mural is totally horizontal, this is non-linear narrative. Use your imagination and reflect on how we see ourselves in relationship to the environment.
Our modern world is comprised of interconnected, complex systems. Systems get out of whack slowly over time. Unlimited growth is our collective undoing. 40 years of the “Market” being ultimate arbiter of everything has proven ruinous. It worked for the few for a while, but the bill is now due.
Back in the 70s into the early 80s, we would drive to Michigan every summer for our family vacation. My father would have to pull over at a gas station half way there. The reason was that he needed to use their squeegee to scrub all the dead bugs off of the windshield. And he’d do it again in the middle of our trip, and on the way home. Every single summer it was the same. But the front of the car was not cleaned off, and I would trip out at all of the different kinds and sizes of dead bugs plastered into the front grill of our Oldsmobile.
In the summer of 2020 I made 5 trips to Michigan in my SUV. I checked my grill; not one dead bug.
Zero.