ART ABOUT COAL TRANSPORT

"Coal Train Through the Forest" done on my iPad.

"Coal Car After Coal Car" done on my iPad. 

When I am on an airplane or do not have brush in hand, I create art on my iPad.  The two pictures here were made using the Brushes app. Since January 2014, I have been doing artwork related to the problems caused by the burning, transportation and mining of coal.  

Last year, while in Sandpoint, Idaho, I witnessed one train pulling 126 (I actually counted!) open coal-filled cars through this beautiful town on its way through Spokane to the West Coast ports.  The ultimate destination for this coal is China.  Just picture this train chugging alongside miles of the pristine forests and clear lakes of northwestern United States.

“It is important to recognize that the only function of coal transport is to link coal mining to coal combustion. The coal mines in the Powder River Basin (Montana and Wyoming) continue to degrade local aquifers and water supplies. Coal combustion in China presents a serious health risk to the hundreds of millions of people, especially children, who live in affected air sheds. Coal combustion is also associated with negative impacts that transcend geographic borders. Ocean acidification, acid rain, mercury emissions, and climate change affect global populations, regardless of where the coal is burned. The financial cost accrued from health and environmental damages from coal mining, processing, transport and combustion are currently estimated at a third to over half a trillion dollars annually in the U.S. alone”.  (Coal Train Facts info@Coaltrainfacts.org).

Let us work collectively and creatively to develop alternative energy solutions.

CONCERNED ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING

Acrylic on Gessoed Watercolor Paper  51" x 39"

Global warming's tumultuous effects in the future concern me.  Every day I do  art work related to this worry in the hopes that the paintings will help raise awareness to find solutions.  

If you want to read more about what I am doing, please check out this link to a recent article from Luxe online magazine:

http://luxebeatmag.com/mary-lou-dauray-artist-world-traveler-advocate-positive-change/

Please also see my updated website:  www.maryloudauray.com

I welcome any comments.  

Furnace Heated by Coke

Here is a photo of my new work in progress:  an acrylic painting being done on two sheets of paper. This  art work in my "Coal" series that I started in January, 2014, depicts coke burning in an old blasting furnace.    According to Wikipedia, historical sources dating as far back as to the 4th century that describes the production of coke in ancient China.  The most important raw material  fed into the blast furnace for making iron and steel is coke and the most commonly used form comes from coal.  I am an artist--not an engineer or scientist--but I wish there were a process commonly used that would not have to employ coal as a primary heating source.  From the  How Stuff Works  web site (http://science.howstuffworks.com) I found out that "the more advanced way (these days) to smelt iron is still in a blast furnace..which is charged with iron ore, charcoal or coke and limestone (CaCO3).  No matter how much we wished that the burning of coal could be eliminated entirely--thus removing the most major source of carbon dioxide in the air--many industries are still dependent on it.  

COAL AND A BIT OF HISTORY

RED and BLUE COALS

30" x 30" Acrylic on Canvas

Although this painting is not quite finished, I wanted to post it in order to continue showing works I am currently doing that focus on coal.  I am also finding that during my painting breaks  I have been using the time to read about the history of coal; study about the problems currently associated with the burning and transporting of coal; and learn about the  ways people are starting to slowly shift the world's dependence on coal and other fossil fuels as energy sources by developing a variety of alternatives.   

Here is a tidbit of coal history from www.ecology.com.  I am sure you all know this, but I found it interesting.  

"Although the fossil fuel coal had been used as a fuel since 1,000 B.C., it wasn’t until the arrival of the Industrial Revolution from the mid-1700s through the 1800s that coal began to replace biomass (essentially wood) as the primary source of energy.  The Industrial Revolution also marks the beginning of an era when the world human population started to explode. Indelibly tied together, both energy consumption and population growth have experienced exponential growth with few exceptions since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. As the population increased, energy demands increased with greater intensity".

FLAME AND COAL

"Flame and Coal"

Intense concern would be an understatement in trying to describe the feelings generated as I continue doing this series of coal paintings.  I am motivated because the more I learn about the negative environmental impact of coal burning, mining, and transportation, the more I know that I need to use my art to bring attention to this serious pollution situation. While coal is the largest source of energy for the generation of electricity worldwide, it is also one of the largest sources of carbon dioxide releases.

“Flame and Coal” is the third in my large acrylic works on this subject.  It is painted on 300 lb.gessoed watercolor paper and is 39” wide by 52” high.

I am very grateful for the numerous resources and photos about coal that are easily obtainable online.  This “Flame and Coal” painting is based on a photo from theguardian.com found in the category of burning coal photos. 

Interestingly, after I had almost completed my painting, I found a version of the same photo on the cover of a recommended book entitled “The Silent Epidemic” by Dr. Alan Lockwood.  He simply states: “the dirty secret is coal kills”.
Please see more of my art at www.maryloudauray.com.  

Burning Coal Makes Me See Blue

Can you see the touches of blue among the pieces of burning coal in this painting?  Most of the reference photos I am studying for my coal series are replete with the colors of gray, black and orange.  However, I found one picture that had blue traces and found out in Wikipedia that “a blue-colored flame only emerges when the amount of soot decreases and the blue emissions from excited molecular radicals become dominant.”  This artist is learning some science! and I love the color blue.

Why am I doing a series of coal art pieces?  My artwork is my voice and there is a chance that these coal paintings and drawings might help create a visual reminder of the significant dangers inherent in the mining, cleaning, transportation and burning of coal.  For the near future at least, every time I post a blog, I will mention the impacts caused by using this type of fuel.

Please look through my website at www.maryloudauray.com to see more of my art.

HERSTORY

"Women's Rights" by Mary Lou Dauray, Watercolor, 22" x 15" 

HERSTORY

Menlo College in Atherton, California, put out a call for artists to enter an exhibition honoring the college and coinciding with its founding 85 years ago.   Artists had to be juried in and once chosen the artist was given a randomly assigned year between 1927, the year of Menlo’s founding,  and 2013 to respond in an artistic way to the cultural, historical or personal events of the specified year.  I was selected as one of the artists and given the year 1975.   After much research, I concluded that I would do a painting honoring WOMEN because in 1975 the first International Women’s Conference took place and, in addition,  WOMEN were depicted on the cover of TIME magazine’s 1975 Person of the Year!
The painting referenced a video still taken at that time.