Pyganodon grandis, 2011

paperboard packaging on board,
7″ x 10.25″

Reflections: Homage to Dunkard Creek is a collaborative installation art project created by 90 practicing artists living in the Monongahela Watershed to commemorate the lives of many of the species who perished in Dunkard Creek. In September 2009, the length of Dunkard Creek including all of its gilled inhabitants literally died when a fatal combination of chemical mine wastes and low water, exacerbated by industry water withdrawals, set off a bloom of an alien toxic algae, suffocating an estimated 65,000 animals.

Each artist was assigned a species and given a small panel on which to represent it. I chose to pay tribute to Pyganodon grandis, using discarded packaging as I see our disregard for the effects of our habits of consumption clearly linked to the blind eye we turn to the way these habits effect the natural world.

Article:

Exhibition travels through October 2012
http://web.me.com/paynestake/Homage_
to_Dunkard_Creek/Welcome.html