El Capitan of GUMO will always look like a mitten from above to me. This piece was made from a large handful of the trash I found over the summer which was mostly plastic products that COULD have originally been recycled!!
As stated earlier, this was the second piece I decided to donate to the park. It was actually crazy getting it from my apartment to the Visitor's Center. My apartment was (thankfully) climate controlled so I never worried about the heat. But the day I decided to transport this piece was HOT. In the few minutes it took to drive from my apartment to the VC a portion of the painting had MELTED OFF (because cha girl does not have AC)!!!!! In order to remedy the situation, I had to set up shop in the VC break room with my travel-sized hot glue gun. Funny sight that must have been to see. Thankfully it all came together!
I'm in love with the photos Ranger Michael took on the black background below! Really appreciate the flip side view of the untouched trash. Hoping the park can find a way to display the piece so both sides are visible.
First, and probably hardest step is to organize the trash in an aesthetically pleasing manner. I wanted the trash to build up and get more and more 3D as it came into the foreground. That's why I chose mostly paper products for the sky and tilted bottles for the foreground.
Prime the piece first with white and then add large color blocks. Notice how I work from background to foreground. This way, the mountains are painted on top of the sky, as it would appear in real life.
Process detail shot. Flippy flop!
Final product!
Final FINAL product
Untouched trash on the reverse side of the finished painting.