Danger No Smoking

This Danger No Smoking print is inspired by a screen print I made in 1990, which was the very first image I made addressing the environmental and health hazards of gasoline. I took this photograph in Providence, RI at the edge of a desolate graveyard, which probably intensified my interpretation of the peeling paint on the gas pump as a skull. I decided the symbolism provided by natural erosion was powerful enough to make the photo worthy of turning into a print. I always liked this image, and I rediscovered it while looking for images to include in a book surveying my entire history of environmentally themed art. I only made ten prints of the gas pump skull in 1990, so I decided I should make a new version of the image as a painting for my Paris art show, and an edition of prints accessible to more than 8 people (I kept two of the ten 1990 prints). - Shepard