"Yellow boy" is the mining term for the yellow-to-orange sludge coating waterways contaminated by acid mine drainage (AMD). In Clearfield and Centre Counties, Pennsylvania — where my ancestors were among the landowners who leased to coal mining companies — flooded abandoned mines spew thousands of gallons of contaminated water into the community every minute. The AMD carries heavy metals with a pH far below what aquatic life can survive; even water that looks pristine can test in the 2's.

For the Yellow Boy project, I created eleven drawings inspired by this landscape, made with natural ochre pigments reclaimed from AMD sludge. Yellow boy is largely iron oxide, the very material ochre pigments are made from. I will donate 100% of proceeds from their sale to the Moshannon Creek Watershed Association (MCWA), the local organization leading mitigation efforts.

After visiting the watershed twice with MCWA guides Eric Skrivseth and George Franchock, I hope eventually to make my own ochre from AMD discharge on my ancestors' land.