Excavation of the Dinos

Excavation of the Dinos

36x39
Wood Panel, House Paint, Acrylic Paint
Unframed

Excavation of the Dinos shows a rusted excavator resting in a torn landscape, painted like a fossil still grinding its way through the earth. James Powers uses this scene to point to the deep cuts mining has carved into West Virginia. The machine looks like an ancient creature.

James Powers is a painter and woodworker from McDowell County, West Virginia. He works with upcycled materials, building his surfaces from found canvas, plywood, masonite, and salvaged wood. His art sits at the crossroads of Appalachian folklore, 80s and 90s pop culture, and the lived realities of the coal fields. James often paints cryptids, local flora and fauna, and the tension between good and evil, drawing on stories from the region and the land he grew up in.

He graduated from Columbia College in West Virginia with a degree in illustration. Every piece he creates is hand built, including the frames, which he constructs with the same care he puts into the paintings themselves. His work reflects a landscape shaped by industry, myth, and the rising changes in Appalachian weather and culture.