Great Lakes Clay

Each glacial period pushed debris known as glacial till down into the Great Lakes region in a series of interdigitated lobes defined by the contours of the landscape and the ridges formed where the glacier stopped advancing. Throughout the sequential glaciations, the landscape of the present-day Great Lakes began to take shape. In some areas the clay is nearly 2,000’ (610m) thick. These clay deposits have been documented for over a century, but the kind of map I’m producing is aimed at giving audiences new perspectives on the diversity of clay.

The Laurentide Ice Sheet slathered a thick layer of glacial clay over the entire Great Lakes region during the last ice age. The distribution pattern of these clays and tills has influenced the industrial and agricultural patchwork of the region, including brick works, industrial scale potteries, clay quarries, wineries and vineyards, and commodity farming. But the clay is not a homogenous in color, composition, or quality; veins of clay a mere 50 feet apart can be so different in terms of color that they appear to be unrelated.

This project aims to produce a catalog and GIS map of the diversity of glacial till throughout the Great Lake region. Samples of glacial clay are being collected from 100 sites around the Great Lakes region, dried in a Yamato DX-300 Drying Oven, pulverized in a Raymond Mill, mixed with bleached linseed oil, and mulled in an Elcometer 2000 Muller Laboratory Grinder before being packed in aluminum paint tubes. From this stock of geocoded oil paint, an edition of chip decks will be produced as artifacts of the project.