Worlds Apart

Last week as I was strolling around the Chester Arnold exhibit “Between Heaven and Earth” shown at the Nevada Museum of Art, the one piece of work that stood out to me the most was titled Worlds Apart.  This piece was created in 1995. In this picture there is a very large mountain separated in the center with two houses placed on the top of each side. Through the gap in the mountain you can see the hustle and bustle of the city down below. It is a very beautifully detailed oil painting.

Chester Arnold’s work is all about the environment and how we humans treat and live with it. “The paintings united in this exhibition ask viewers to consider the implications of unchecked economic development and industrialized growth on the natural environment. Often, Arnold's work is infused with a dose of religious or political inflection that generates passionate dialogue about the topics he tackles. "If this is God's will," Arnold once remarked while referring to one of the abused landscapes he depicted on canvas, "something is wrong."” (http://www.nevadaart.org/exhibitions/detail?eid=157).

This piece is particular about how much our earth can handle.  “Worlds Apart shows a bustling metropolis congested with traffic and freeway overpasses. Multiple cliff-top are divided by a deep chasm crumbling beneath them-perhaps an ominous warning to suggest that there is only so much the earth can sustain.” –Nevada Museum of Art.

To me this piece portrays the lack of compassion we have for our planet. It’s showing us we need to take care of the Earth or it will fall apart on us. The planet has provided natural resources for us to survive, but we have given no thanks in return besides excessive building and pollution.