Dinosaur Valley State Park

Last month I went to Dinosaur Valley State Park and I saw this...

dinosaur footprint

It was hot and there were about a million people crowding around the dinosaur foot print taking pictures and behaving like typical Americans.  We collectively mumbled under our breathe, "This is it?" in regards to the footprint.  

What a bunch of assholes we were.  Yeah...this is it - it's a fucking dinosaur footprint for the love of god, we should have been beside ourselves with wonder!  But we weren't. Even as I lived that moment I felt gross.

And I saw this...

 dinosaur figurines

On the way out of the park I wanted to stop at the gift shop because it was so obnoxious. Sun-faded dinosaurs were posted on top of the shop and sprinkled throughout the parking lot.  There were even dinosaur trashcans.  It wasn't okay to me to shovel garbage into a smiling dinosaur face.  

What was wrong with me?  This was supposed to be a cheerful outing and I was acting like a senile fun-nazi.  It all seemed so cheap.  So I started this painting.

 Dinosaur Valley State Park (in-progress), 

oil on wood, 32"x48", 2013