Paintings Depict Toxic Oil Leak

×

Expand

Allyson Glenn, "Fantasy," 2015

acrylic and oil on canvas, 51" x 76”

Four years ago Saskatoon artist Allyson Glenn made a horrifying discovery – her home was sitting atop a toxic leak from an old heating oil tank. By odd coincidence, she had already started a series of paintings about an imaginary catastrophe, work soon overtaken by this real-life crisis. Glenn, a figurative painter who teaches at the University of Saskatchewan, represents that experience in Catalyst, at the Two Rivers Gallery in Prince George, B.C., until Jan. 8. The paintings include an image of predator and prey fleeing as a crowd watches a raging fire.

Allyson Glenn, "The Cave 1," 2013

Allyson Glenn, "Caught in the Tailings Pond," 2014

Another shows Glenn’s husband, backlit and wearing a respirator, peering down into a cavernous pit below the house. One painting, Caught in a Tailings Pond, speaks directly to her emotional state. Glenn depicts herself in a fetal pose as seen from above, the couple's contaminated belongings swirling around her. Glenn says toxins from such leaks can penetrate a cement floor, move into insulation, drywall or even furniture and other household items.

“Once they have entered an object they off-gas for many years,” she says. “Even though the air may seem clean and there is no visible evidence of oil, a site can be toxic with carcinogens, and essentially poisonous – with serious consequences for human health.”

It took 18 months to clean up the site and their home insurance didn’t cover the cost. In the end, they decided to sell, and continue to live happily in the rented house they fled to during the remediation work.