I began this piece with the intent to portray a might-be tourism of the future. While many of the earlier... Read More
I began this piece with the intent to portray a might-be tourism of the future. While many of the earlier works focused on the transformation of ice into water, I recognize that global warming might also shift climate patterns in various locations to increase the likelihood of droughts. Once plentiful water may become a thing of the past, spoken of only by the oldest inhabitants of such regions. People may begin offering tours to history buffs, taking groups on expeditions to places where water used to be.
While the painting began with the same focus on satire that characterizes earlier works, the visual tone never really approached a level of comedy. Instead, the figures slowly became surrogates for Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra’s Don Quixote and Sancho Panza characters. The taller figure, Quixote, leads his squire across a fairly desolate landscape in an illogical effort to relive something impossibly lost (here, the fundamental water). While the upper figure points down to the puddle with his staff, his sidekick looks out, struggling to see his knight’s vision.
after: "The Desert at Assouan, Egypt" by Sanford Gifford (1869) and "Procession in the Province of Kursk" by Ilya Repin (1881-1883)
