Assuaging of the Waters (after J. Martin)

Martin’s 19th century original is a romantic landscape smoothly painted in an illusionistic style. I refashioned it into an abstract expressionistic swirl of color and texture anchored by the central figure of a dove alighting to pluck an olive branch from the midst of the debris left by the receding floodwaters. My idea was to sacrifice the illusionism of the original and substitute real detritus evoking the aftermath of an actual flood and holding the modern gaze captive a bit longer with the visual interplay between the real and the illusion, the actual objects and their depiction.