Press Release

October 24, 2006

Contact: Chris Worth 304-417-6430, David Seth Cyfers 304-617-7204

The Appalachian Landscape: Bob Ross Don’t Live Here No More
Art show part of fund- and awareness-raising in Huntington

HUNTINGTON, W. VA. – A group striving to save the literal landscape and change the political landscape will host an art show focusing on the Appalachian landscape.

But don’t expect the show, titled “The Appalachian Landscape: Bob Ross Don’t Live Here No More,” to be filled solely with artwork depicting Appalachia’s beauty.

The show is a fundraiser for the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OVEC), a citizens group calling for an end to mountaintop removal coal mining. OVEC is also pushing for the state to adopt “Clean Election” provisions, which would allow qualifying political candidates to run for office without having to rely on campaign contributions from special interest groups such as the coal industry.

A free opening reception, with live music and refreshments, is set for 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 11. The show will run for a week at 949 3rd Avenue, across from Pullman Square in downtown Huntington.

Bob Ross was an oil painter whose Public Television show The Joy of Painting is the most recognized art show in the history of television. He painted serene landscapes. 

The title of the Huntington exhibit reflects the organizers sentiments, outlined in their call for artists, that “the coal industry in rapacious greed has probed the belly of this land and run off with the wealth thus generated, (and) mountaintop removal is the most blatant, extreme abuse of our people and our land, both of which have suffered a long history of abuse…By abstracting the landscape, speaking in a visual language, we wish to bring socio-political change.”

The show is organized by artist Chris Worth, a Marshall University (MU) graduate student.

“We are hoping more coalfield residents will submit artwork,” Worth added. He helped organize the show, along with MU chairman of religious studies Dr. Clay McNearney and David Cyfers, a senior MU art major.

The group’s invitation to artist reads, “We are asking you to submit one to three works of art that address the broad and contested issues, political, social, psychological and spiritual, affecting the Appalachian landscape in our day. Art is powerful when used to raise individual consciousness and to sensitize entire communities. It allows us to see the actual landscape, something not seen in a Bob Ross inspired painting. We challenge you to become informed, to create with purpose and to join with us in using our art and our talent to resist those powers that today destroy life in our community.”

Artists who want their work considered for inclusion in the show should contact Worth at 304-417-6430 or, via e-mail, worth2@marshall.edu. The deadline for potential entries to be delivered is Nov. 9.

“In the artworks, we want to see the whole range of how mountaintop removal affects us all--the physical, sociological, political,” Worth said.

During the opening reception, Katherine Mohn, a MU senior, will present a play about mountaintop removal based on the collective writing of part time MU English professor Dr. Victor Depta. The English Department has put together books of protest poetry which will be for sale as part of the show.

Artists who sell works during the show will donate at least 30% of the proceeds to OVEC.

For more information, see www.myspace.com/bobrossdontlivehere and www.sludgesafety.org/temp/2006_11_11.pdf.

The Artists Prospectus is available at: www.ohvec.org/events_calendar/call_for_artists.pdf.

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A jpeg image of the art show invitation is available upon request to vivian@ohvec.org.  Photos of mountaintop removal also available for publication.