Ponderous

Ponderous, painted by Erik Burke on a metal meat freezer at Ponderosa Meat & Provision Co., features a portrait of John Muir on the left in front of snow-covered mountains and a body of water, flanked by an open hand about to receive a pine cone, with white and gray stripes running through the scene. Burke used a simple color palette consisting of white, black, grays and browns. The description of the mural on Burke's website is as follows: "Correlating the etymology of the building's namesake and John Muir, a profound advocate for the preservation and enjoyment of the nearby Sierras. The mural places a pondering and monochromatic Muir in a winter landscape next to a hand catching a falling pinecone as an allegory for the weight of man's relationship with nature. A trinity of lines helps order the various planes and build a stage of depth."