Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Wyatt's Torch



"Wyatt's Torch," my new painting, is now done. It was originally conceived as an abstract meditation on an incident from Ayn Rand's ATLAS SHRUGGED, but underwent a re-conception when I decided to enter it in a local juried show at Falls Church Arts. The theme of this juried show is "Letters," in which you have to somehow incorporate one or more letters from our alphabet into your artistic entry. In this piece, I've placed the letter W prominently in fiery red on a black background. W stands for "Wyatt." I hope my art is accepted for the show.

In Rand's book, Ellis Wyatt is a defiant oil magnate who blows up his own oilfields and refinery rather than allow it to be taken over by the government. What is left after the destruction is one flaming oil derrick that no one could put out. That came to be known as "Wyatt's Torch." I am a big fan of fiery stuff so I am glad to create a picture full of stylized flames, volcanic and industrial-apocalyptic at the same time.

"Wyatt's Torch" is acrylic and colored pencil on illustration board, 16" x 12", March 2011. You are invited to click on the image for a somewhat larger view.

2 comments:

Tristan Alexander said...

kinda cool. But I see a S an A and a W. It spells SAW!

Mary said...

I liked it better before you explained what it was... I don't want to like something representing such an anti-social act!