Tbt to last week's painting #emptyfortune The most daunting and grueling construction of the #transcontinentalrailroad occurred very close to my hometown of Reno at Donner Pass. What made this section especially impressive was the nearly 1700 foot long tunnel through the Sierra Mountains. It was chiseled by hand, for the most part exclusively by migrant Chinese workers at a rate of less than a foot a day and a wage of $35/month. While many Chinese men came to the USA because of the gold rush very few ended up digging for gold. Instead, nearly 10,000 Chinese workers were employed in some capacity by the Central Pacific Railroad in the construction of the Transcontinental railroad. This painting attempts to put a face to the faceless by depicting an anonymous Chinese man on the side of the (now abandoned) train snow shed at Donner Summit. Flanking the portrait is a fortuneless cookie to illustrate the dire reality of the time. Not only does the cookie lack any sort of "fortune" but it also represents the hollow and vacuous labor tunneling through the pass nearly 150 years ago. #ou36 #mural #fortunelesscookie #makeportraits #donnertunnels #donnerpass
