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“Used Rock” - Oil on Canvas, 24in x 48in

The Richmond South Quarry, managed by Luck Stone, is just a few miles south of Richmond. You may have noticed its top ridges on the right if you were in a passenger seat going northbound on 95. I’ve known about it for years but never had the opportunity to see it in person. This fall I took a visit so that I could study it and paint it. These are my results.

The quarry, also referred to as a mine, is a man made monument carved 350 feet down through a solid block of granite, the same granite which is underneath much of Richmond if you go deep enough. We don’t often think of monuments being things that go downward. Monuments tend to go upwards and defy gravity. This monument quarry embraces gravity and moves towards it. Monuments are usually an object, but the quarry is really about the negative space. It is not the object, but the remains of an object (or objects). It is the remaining marks of removal of its form, one rock at a time.

This pit with its 50’ “benches” is like a clock or a calendar. Perhaps a log book of time. It documents the passage of time in increments of dump trucks and sticks of dynamite. The trees on the top benches are growing full after being left alone to rise for years.

The tons and tons of rock pulled from here are taken to line roadways, fill embankments and stabilize foundations. This is a result of our infrastructure. This is our mark. As a square, its oval shape fills a roughly 3000’ x 1400’ plot of land. That’s a 96 acre hole in the ground. It sits on a plot of land that is 152 acres according to the Richmond GIS. Just to compare it to something common and physical, you could fit about 5 pentagons in that space (the pentagon is 28.7 acres). And that’s just one layer. Since the pentagon is only 77’ tall, that means you could fit another few layers of them in the mine.

“Used Rock” - gouache on watercolor paper, 10in x 4in

One of the other amazing things about this quarry is that it sits right next to the James River. Positioned just south of Goode Creek, this mine sits unbothered by the 6,835 cubic feet of water flowing every second just 100’ from its wall. The river sits at the same level as the first and second bench, but you could never tell. The rock does not care.

Why don’t we dig down for our dwellings as much as we like to go upwards? We’re such surface dwellers. There is so much “down”. Both directions are hard to go in. One has more light, the other has better temperatures. There are jewels and minerals and life to be found by digging downward. It’s like we’re disecting the cadaver of earth when we dig like this, examing the history of how it was formed and under what conditions. It’s so fascinating, but we still don’t want to live there. Is it because of the lack of light? The damppness? Is it because downward feels like a tomb?

“Used Rock” - gouache on watercolor paper, 10in x 6in

What will happen to this pit when we’re done with it, or will we dig from it in perpetuity, going deeper and wider throughout the life of humanity? Will we fill it with water and make an incredibly deep lake? Will we fill it with trash? Fill it with nuclear waste? Maybe someone will blow a hole in the side and let the James River come in. For the minutes or hours it took to fill with water, the level of the James River would briefly recede and show us its belly of treasures unseen by most. That would be a sight, and a smell.

Maybe we could turn the mine into a building or a bunker for the entire city. That’s probably not a good idea, since it’s so close to the river.

My favorite idea is to turn it into an amphitheater! A Drive-in amphitheater! There’s enough room on each bench to have a road and a parking space. That would be the best Radiohead show ever. It would be an ampitheater worthy of Quidditch Finals.

What do you think about this mine? How much of its contents have you ridden over in your lifetime? Is there any way to ever know? What forces had to exist to make this granite and what would that have been like to see it form?

There’s so many questions to ask. Thank you for indulging me. All paintings are available for purchase.

“Used Rock” - oil on paper, 16in x 8in