Illinois artist James D. Butler, known for expansive naturalistic landscapes, has been painting the mighty Mississippi since 1990. Power Plant/ St. Paul, offering a bird’s eye view of the industrialized riverfront, is part of the artist’s on-going examination of the relationship between humankind and nature.
Butler observes: In the painting, Power Plant/Saint Paul, industry has intruded into the Upper Mississippi region, arguably the most beautiful area along the River. There are obvious environmental and ecological issues associated with this event.
This one-painting exhibition, on display April 4–May 4, 2014 in the Perlman Teaching Museum lobby, adds a Minnesota note to the larger visual conversation embodied in the Petrochemical America: Project Room exhibition. Our need for power, generated by water, coal, or the petrochemical industry, has serious aesthetic, environmental, and public health consequences.