Life and Legend of Pocahontas

This was a mural that I completed in 2007 and was started in 2006. The mural took over a year to complete and is the largest mural I had ever painted until that time. The mural is in Gloucester, Virginia which is the birthplace of Pocahontas. Pocahontas was the daughter of Powhatan, chief of the Tsenacommacah. Chief Powhatan ruled over what is present-day Virginia. There is an article in National Geographic from 2007 that explains better than I ever could about this, so I recommend you visit your local library and grab a copy. For the 300th Anniversary of the state of Virginia, the Cook Foundation commissioned me to create this mural in the historical town of Gloucester on the side of the main library. The mural depicts various scenes from the life of Pocahontas and represents various contradictions and extremes of her life. Throughout my career, I have always been fascinated with extremes, contradictions, and opposites. Pocahontas went from one extreme to another starting with her people in Virginia to England which was at the time two extremely different worlds like night and day, east and west, left, and right. The mural depicts Pocahontas in these two different worlds that are lit by two different light sources: moon and sun. The lower section of the mural depicts the story of Powhatan painted in various rocks and metals of Virginia.