In this piece, Paul Thek does an extremely good job of capturing Earth's transigence. By rendering the piece on newspaper, Thek made his representation of Earth as fragile and sensitive as the real planet. Additionally, the medium of the piece ensurses that it is finite. "Earth Drawing I" will certainly not last forever, just as the planet will not last forever.

The piece is given a second added dimension by the usage of newspaper as well. A newspaper is the embodiment of humanity; it tracks and documents everything our society does. In the painting, the natural order of the universe is encroached upon by the chaos of the newspaper. The painting doesn't fully cover the news, suggesting that humanity is similarly encroaching upon the natural order of the planet.

Thek's painting speaks to me about the temporality of our life on Earth. Our society and the world we have built up around it will all eventually disintegrate, just like the newspaper and acrylic. Humanities trials and tribulations, printed daily in thousands of publications daily, may someday obscure completely the natural world around us.

In this piece, Paul Thek does an extremely good job of capturing Earth's transigence. By rendering the piece on newspaper, Thek made his representation of Earth as fragile and sensitive as the real planet. Additionally, the medium of the piece ensurses that it is finite. "Earth Drawing I" will certainly not last forever, just as the planet will not last forever.

The piece is given a second added dimension by the usage of newspaper as well. A newspaper is the embodiment of humanity; it tracks and documents everything our society does. In the painting, the natural order of the universe is encroached upon by the chaos of the newspaper. The painting doesn't fully cover the news, suggesting that humanity is similarly encroaching upon the natural order of the planet.

Thek's painting speaks to me about the temporality of our life on Earth. Our society and the world we have built up around it will all eventually disintegrate, just like the newspaper and acrylic. Humanities trials and tribulations, printed daily in thousands of publications daily, may someday obscure completely the natural world around us. Maybe we don't need to worry about life on Mars, because write now we need to fix life on Earth.

I thought it was neat that the contemporary paper he used had:
1. An ad for a major oil company talking about their record profits
2. An article about conservation and energy savings
3. An article about women being allowed (!) to work as garbage collectors
4. An article about U.S. Army funds being used to build a golf course in Germany

It was touching to see not only contemporary issues being reflected in 1974, but also a reminder of the things we take for granted right now. I doubt the artist intended this work to be a "time capsule" of us, but it is touching. I wonder what people will think about these headlines in the future.

I loved all of the pieces in this exhibit, particularly this one. I thought it was extremely significant that all of the paintings were not only painted on just newspapers, but newspapers that were exclaiming important articles and headliners and ads. This piece really put into perspective where our planet stands; the issues that that not just one culture but the human race as a whole concerns itself with. It really made me think about how insignificant things are when viewing common issues and the big picture, in this case the Earth, simultaneously.

I like this piece of artwork because it shows you, you can pretty much use anything to make art, in this case they used newspaper and paint.

I like this piece of artwork because it shows you, you can pretty much use anything to make art, in this case they used newspaper and paint.