Life, Liberty, and Property - Lost

"The Enoch Brown Massacre"  by Kevin Rice. 

"The Enoch Brown Massacre".  A well know and shocking story (even by today's standards) of the 1764 massacre of 10 school children during the "French and Indian War" is the 6th painting in a series of historical paintings by the artist Kevin Rice of the Conococheague.  Rice chooses (for our sake) not to graphically illustrate the grizzly mayhem described in the history books, but, the terrible reality of that day in frontier Pennsylvania, cannot be mistaken.  There is no doubt that this massacre was a defining event, confirming in Pennsylvanians' minds the need for the Colony and the Crown to finally take action to secure their Life, Liberty, and Property.
The artist draws us to the painting with a small child in terror, it is only when we look away that we see among the trees the object of her horror - an Indian warrior with a blood covered club. As if that weren't enough, a child's doll amidst the fallen leaves leads us to an even more grizzly discovery. Through the mastery of his brush Rice gives the viewer a profound insight into Pennsylvania life during the time of the French and Indian Wars.

Artists Bio 

Kevin Rice is one of the most important and complex young artists working in Pennsylvania today.

Although largely self-taught, Kevin Rice's work is imbued with an energy, spirit, and intellect beyond his years.  Raised on a farm in Pennsylvania, his work is rich in the lore and life from his surroundings.  In the spirit of pantheist, Charles Ephraim Burchfield (1893-1967), Rice relies heavily on his intimate knowledge of nature's landscape to create his dramatic and sometimes primitive worlds. His visceral bond with nature is
self-evident.

His depictions of nature often have a haunting visceral quality, where wind, trees, and light seem to take on a life of their own.  His colors sometimes rage across his canvases overwhelming the narrative as a volcano consumes its own mountainside.  Heroic figures struggle within his view with a nature that is relentless and unbowed.  Realizing that the world that he paints confounds his canvas, he attempts, sometimes successfully, to frame or border his vision with trees or vines.

The worlds he creates are those of the shaman... Where "nothing is as it seems."-- JWRoss