"Three Bostons" (2025) acrylic on canvas
Posted by LadyZeroOne@reddit | collapse | View on Reddit | 11 comments
Channeled some collapse anxiety into painting
Posted by LadyZeroOne@reddit | collapse | View on Reddit | 11 comments
Channeled some collapse anxiety into painting
Codspear@reddit
This reminds me of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Three California’s Trilogy. In the first book, he shows Orange County after a nuclear apocalypse. In the second, he shows the same region as a mundane cyberpunk dystopia. In the third book, he shows it as an ecotopia where things were somehow solved decades prior. It’s a bit dated as it was written in the 80’s, but you might like it.
Great paintings however. I also recommend the movie “Inundation District”, which is about the Seaport.
lost_horizons@reddit
Is the second one worth reading? I tried on audible, since I loved the first one, but it was boring, I feel I only made it a few chapters (hard to say on an audio book). He's basically my favorite author but not sure about that one. The third book was also good.
Codspear@reddit
My favorite author as well. The second one is kinda boring largely because it’s the closest one to the world we live in.
In my opinion, it’s worth it since there are parts that weave into the other two and also describe parts of KSR’s own life. For example, there’s a scene in The Gold Coast where he describes a child playing in the craters of the last orange orchard to be felled, and you kinda get the idea that he’s trying to convey: He moved to Orange County when it only had a few hundred thousand people and was mostly orange orchards that he played in. By the time he became an adult, it had all been bulldozed under and replaced by suburbia and city. He watched what he considered to be a mediterranean paradise get replaced with the world of the Gold Coast, and he’s describing himself as a child playing in the last orchards that he loved. This was the first catalyst for his environmentalist beliefs.
As you read through KSR’s bibliography, you start noticing that it’s largely anthological and contains many autobiographical insertions and shared context that connect them all together.
LadyZeroOne@reddit (OP)
Submission statement:
I've been wanting to paint this for a while, but haven't had access to my hobby paints until recently. The series is titled "Three Bostons", all painted in the second week of 2025. Each is titled individually. "Boston Now" is the first one, and is a familiar image of the Boston Skyline from across the Charles River. "Boston Next" depicts the city in the midst of end-stage collapse (with heavy reference drawn from the recent LA fires — New England is having plenty of red flag warnings too in recent years) and smoke occluding the sky. And "Boston Foreverafter" shows the permanent aftermath of it all — an abandoned husk, barely visible against the enormity of the universe.
Each painting has a passage from the torah written on the back. Genesis 2:1, Leviticus 26:19, and Deuteronomy 28:62 are applied respectively. I took a lot of inspiration from some Jewish art styles (most present in "Boston Now") and I'm really proud of it. This was a good project. I'm glad I did it!
lost_horizons@reddit
These are wonderful! I love it when people post their work here, art and writing, it's a really nice addition to the sub. Because I was curious, I looked up the quotes and post them here in case others were too. Translations may differ of course. I especially love the hubris implied in the Genesis one, in this context, like we assume our world is a completed work and forever will last, as if ordained.
Gen 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
Lev 26:19 I will break down your stubborn pride and make the sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze.
Deut 28:62 And ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude; because thou wouldest not obey the voice of the Lord thy God.
TopZealousideal7223@reddit
These are absolutely beautiful. I would absolutely pay for prints if you can do that too? If not all okay- but I really like them.
lunchbox_tragedy@reddit
Those are great. Nice use of different palettes
saturnui99@reddit
I would love to buy these- seconding the commenter who suggested prints. Beautiful
lefty_juggler@reddit
Love it!
Will the future recapitulate the past? My great-great-grandfather fled famine - the Irish potato Famine - for Boston. In 1871 a plague of diphtheria swept through the city and both his children, age 1 and 3, died. Next year he survived the Boston Fire of 1872 by a matter of a couple city blocks while his wife was 8 months pregnant. That was his low point, I wonder what ours will be?
StatementBot@reddit
The following submission statement was provided by /u/LadyZeroOne:
Submission statement:
I've been wanting to paint this for a while, but haven't had access to my hobby paints until recently. The series is titled "Three Bostons", all painted in the second week of 2025. Each is titled individually. "Boston Now" is the first one, and is a familiar image of the Boston Skyline from across the Charles River. "Boston Next" depicts the city in the midst of end-stage collapse (with heavy reference drawn from the recent LA fires — New England is having plenty of red flag warnings too in recent years) and smoke occluding the sky. And "Boston Foreverafter" shows the permanent aftermath of it all — an abandoned husk, barely visible against the enormity of the universe.
Each painting has a passage from the torah written on the back. Genesis 2:1, Leviticus 26:19, and Deuteronomy 28:62 are applied respectively. I took a lot of inspiration from some Jewish art styles (most present in "Boston Now") and I'm really proud of it. This was a good project. I'm glad I did it!
Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/1i3rprf/three_bostons_2025_acrylic_on_canvas/m7pawdl/
StatementBot@reddit
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