Alaskan Landscape in Powdered Glass

This is the view I see every morning when I drive to work. The island where my office is located is adjacent to the Treadwell Mine, which was once the largest, most productive gold mine in the United States. Miners pulled more than 200 million ounces of gold out of that mine, until somebody tunnelled a bit too close to the channel, and the wall collapsed, flooding the mine with seawater. I hate when that happens.

Anyway, there are many ruins on the island, including the old pumphouse, the strangest-looking building I've ever seen. It looks like one of those tall, skinny caricatures of a house that a little child might draw, but it's real. I'm not sure why it has such an unusual shape, but it sits out in the channel, surrounded by water at high tide, and lifted on a small spit of rock and sand at low tide. I love it, and photograph it all the time.

It made for an excellent, dramatic subject for my second frit drawing. Can't wait to fire this one.