David "Blue" Lamm, American, born 1958
Shuttle Car, 1977
David Lamm is a self-taught American painter from West Virginia who seeks to use art as way to demonstrate the concerns for the people working in coal mining. In Shuttle Car, Lamm paints a coal miner shuttling coal in a box labeled as “joy” against a deep, ominous black background. The box is covered in coal dust and contrasts the qualities and sentiment that would typically be assigned to a box filled of “joy.” It seems as if Lamm is commenting on the commonly inaccurate presentation of the coal mining industry to the public—although disguised as a great source of energy and jobs, the coal industry wreaks havoc on the environment and creates health problems for the people who live in these areas. Label by Maeve Marsh