This painting was heavily inspired by the 1993 Sandia Report, which discusses how we could possibly warn future, or even alien, civilizations about the dangers of nuclear waste sites and radiation. The report brings up things like hostile architecture, written warnings, and providing information. While the warnings and information are interesting, the hostile architecture is what really drew me into this concept.

I wanted to create a place that made the viewer feel like they shouldn’t be there. The metal spikes are the most obvious example of this, but not the only one. There is a complete lack of vegetation, the only animals around are the birds flying overhead, the writing is in an unrecognizable language, and there is nothing else around the viewer for miles. Even the slightly unnatural formation of the clouds and the glowing dots around the pillar add to the overall mood of the piece.

The initial concept for this painting was something I had come up with a few months prior to making it. I had made an illustration back then, but I felt I could do the concept more justice with a different aspect ratio and composition. The original idea and layout was inspired by travel posters, whereas this time around I wanted to really immerse the viewer in the art. I looked back at my old thumbnails and found a composition that appealed to me, before expanding it to fit the new canvas size.