Jack Balas, RUMOR, 2002; oil, enamel & ink/ canvas; 40"x96"
Note: RUMOR was the result of a stop at the Grand Canyon this spring where, on a somewhat hazy day, I became more interested in my fellow tourists than the landscape we were all looking at. As everyone walked past, oblivious to the guy with the camera sitting 15 feet back from the rim, I was mesmerized by this passing parade of humanity who were, perhaps for the first time, considering the grand evidence of our mortality, our ephemerality so graphically suggested by layer upon rock layer of the eons of time. While the central vignettes are close-up paintings of tourists, the upper images are clouds over which have been inked random names from the phone book. Click on image for detail
