Saltbound Horizon – MIND, Salt Lakes, Utah

Saltbound Horizon – MIND, Salt Lakes, Utah

• Dimensions: 100 cm × 100 cm × 4 cm
• Inspiration: The Salt Lakes, Salt Lake City, Utah (reference photograph included with the artwork)
• Materials: acrylic paste, paint, art resin, gold leaf, salt crystals from the salt flats

Includes certificate of authenticity.

Utah's salt lakes are growing. As the region's water shortage deepens, the lakes retreat and more of the salt bed is exposed each year. What used to be water is now a quiet, expanding plain of crystal and dust, a confronting record of climate shift in real time.

This work uses real salt crystals collected from the flats, pressed into the surface alongside thick layers of art resin. The matte, brittle salt sits against the glossy resin in the same way the dry salt sits against what remains of the water. The contrast in materials traces the line where the lake used to be.

The portrait surfaces inside the horizon line, made of the salt that the lake left behind. The painting documents the Salt Lakes at this moment, in a landscape that is steadily changing.

Artwork by Marjolein Marx