‘The Styx, A Stereo Window’

Romeo’s large scale impressionistic painting shows a movement, an aliveness of time and place while the graphically dense details of the eddies in the tannin rich waters allows the viewer to fall into the swirl and be carried into the image. The title alludes to a historical implement for viewing, the stereoscope was a device once used to view far distant lands. The preliminary drawings and photographic documentation were gathered where only a hundred meters away were scenes of major destruction and decimation of land through heavy handed forestry activities. The roads that were traveled to reach this sublime space, are the very same road networks that were established to cart away our very lifeline of existence. We have to consider the possibility these stereoscopes captured in oil and pigment will be the only way to view these landscapes in the coming decades, assuming even they survive the wanton expansion of the human race. A reminder of what we could preserve from being mindful of the destruction caused by our collective narrow focus on fiscal gain prioritised over the earth’s bounty of natural resources and beauty. What are we all collectively losing from this practice of narrow focus financial gain?