Slow Burn by Wayne White is a satirical painting poking fun at people’s slowly rising frustration that they cannot control the natural world. The definition of slow burn is a state of slowly mounting anger or annoyance. Human beings are frustrated over their lack of power when it comes to the environment. The painting itself has a lighthearted feel and makes fun of the absurdity of getting angry over not being able to control nature. Nature is a wild thing and you cannot domesticate it as you would a pet. Slow Burn suggests coexisting with the world rather than attempting to rule it.
A clear separation is visible between what is natural and what is manmade in Slow Burn. Wide arrays of orange, red, and brown leaves cover the ground and spread sparsely among the branches of the trees above. Blues, grays and whites flow through a stream that winds along the forest floor up to the haunting shadow of a mountain, barely visible through the trees. These colors provide a moody aura that is offset by the bright beige of the letters plastered across the scene. Because of this blunt separation, this painting can be considered comical. White is pointing and laughing at people’s vanity and how they think that what they create is better than the…show more content… We transform commodities in a way that nature cannot, and that is why what we make from natural things stand apart from what is wild and untamed. Wayne White represents this idea by painting doctored products in front of a natural scene. Large acrylic three-dimensional letters are daubed over a reproduced vintage lithograph of a fall landscape. These wobbly, misshapen words have wood-like textures and look whittled and carved. White’s outlining of the words “slow burn” in blood red adds to the representation of the gradually boiling frustration of people and their endless battle to control the natural