Mining Disasters

Four maps overlaid; Utah, England, Appalachia, and Nova Scotia.  These were all major centers of mining, and home to most of the major mining disasters of this century and the last.  Sites of the worst disasters are twined about with song lyrics written about those events, and edited newspaper headlines form the exterior border.  The interior border contains excerpts from police statements regarding sex workers.  Original is ink on watercolor paper, 22 x 30.  Prints are available at full size or scaled to traditional sizes for ease of framing.

Note: If printed in smaller sizes, words may not be readable.

Miners had to fight, and were often literally murdered, for the right to form a union, to demand fair wages and a safe workplace.  And yet, mining centers are often extremely politically conservative, especially with regards to women's safety and the rights of sex workers. These women and girls have no union, no protection under the law, and no safety.  I wanted to highlight the fact that there is no difference between selling your body to the mines, to certain disease and early death, to keep a rich man warm at night than there is to selling your body for sex, to certain disease and an early death, to keep a rich man warm at night.  More unites us than divides us, and if we lose sight of that, we are well and truly lost.