The Abyss Pool – MIND, Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park

The Abyss Pool – MIND, Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park

• Dimensions: 100 cm × 100 cm × 4 cm
• Inspiration: The Abyss Pool, West Thumb Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park (reference photograph included with the artwork)
• Materials: acrylic paste, paint, art resin, gold leaf, geyserstones, sand and minerals collected on location

Includes certificate of authenticity.

The Abyss Pool is a deep, crystal-blue geyser, fed by the heat of an active supervolcano. The water is calm at the surface and unstable beneath, where the ground is thin and the pressure is constant. Visitors walk on planks meters from a phenomenon that could shift overnight.

For this work, geyserstones, minerals, and sand were gathered directly from the surrounding basin and ground by hand into the pigments of the painting. The deep blue of the pool sits inside the work as a literal fragment of the place: a piece of Yellowstone, carried into the canvas.

The portrait emerges from the contours of the pool itself. What looks at first like a figure resolves into the geological surface that holds it. A landscape painted in the materials of that landscape, in a moment that may already be changing.

Artwork by Marjolein Marx