The Legend of Okjökull is a large scale painting, 72 x 120 inches (183 x 305 cm). Okjökull was an glacier in Iceland, but declared dead in 2014 by Oddur Sigurosson, one of the country’s leading glaciologists. The site is now marked with a plaque that warns “In the next 200 years all our glaciers are expected to follow the same path.” It is Iceland’s first glacier lost to climate change. The painting is based on NASA’s September 14, 1986 arial photograph of the glacier. My goal was to turn the image into a sign of warning and a monument to the glaciers’ past majesty. With this in mind, I selected the color yellow to signify instability, caution, and sickness, while painting the Okjökull purple, a majestic color of nobility, dignity, and grandeur. 

The Legend Of Okjökull

In this work I integrate single use plastic bags into the painting surface. The bags introduce a new contextual dimension to these paintings and serve as an opportunity discuss one of our modern challenges. For example, Americans use 100 billion plastic bags each year, which require 12 million barrels of oil to manufacture. It also takes 500 (or more) years for a plastic bag to degrade in a landfill. But these bags photo-degrade, becoming micro-plastics that absorb toxins and continue to pollute. I look for ways to combine this non-traditional painting material with paint to create compelling metaphor. Color is used with symbolic consideration. By combining material and color through painting, I’m able to tell a contemporary story through the tradition of painting. 

The Problem With Plastic No.4

In this work I integrate single use plastic bags into the painting surface. The bags introduce a new contextual dimension to these paintings and serve as an opportunity discuss one of our modern challenges. For example, Americans use 100 billion plastic bags each year, which require 12 million barrels of oil to manufacture. It also takes 500 (or more) years for a plastic bag to degrade in a landfill. But these bags photo-degrade, becoming micro-plastics that absorb toxins and continue to pollute. I look for ways to combine this non-traditional painting material with paint to create compelling metaphor. Color, like yellow, are used with symbolic consideration. Yellow is a color of contradictions. It can suggest happiness, positivity, and loyalty. But it is also a sign of instability, caution, and sickness. By combining material and color through painting, I’m able to tell a contemporary story through the tradition of painting. 


The Problem With Plastic No.1

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, I have been looking at graphs, charts, exponential growth, and the threshold at which our healthcare system will be overwhelmed. My “Listen To Dr. Fauci” painting series uses these pandemic related graphs and charts to create images that examine these issues. Color accompanies these COVID influenced paintings to provide an emotional component, hopefully calling the viewer to reflect on our healthcare workers and the victims of the pandemic. 


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Benjamin Murphy

The Legend Of Okjökull

The Problem With Plastic No.4

The Problem With Plastic No.1

Listen To Dr. Fauci No.2

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