The Battle of Mcdowell County

The Battle of McDowell County

25x18

Wood Panel Board, House paint, Acyylic paint 

Unframed

The Battle of McDowell County shows a WWII Stug III tank painted with the CAT logo, merging a symbol of fascist warfare with the machinery used in the coal fields. James Powers uses this scene to show how McDowell County powered the nation during the fight against fascism overseas. The land was excavated, mined, and pushed to its limits by people who gave everything they had.

The painting points to the contrast between that sacrifice and the poverty the region faces now. The glowing sky and scarred ground reflect a place that fought hard for a country that often forgot it.

James Powers is a painter and woodworker from McDowell County, West Virginia. He builds all his surfaces from salvaged wood, canvas, and masonite. His work blends Appalachian folklore, coal field history, cryptid stories, and 80s and 90s pop culture. He paints the tension between good and evil, the shifting Appalachian landscape, and the stories buried in the oldest mountains in the world. James graduated from Columbia College in West Virginia with a degree in illustration and hand builds every frame.