Rebecca Allan's paintings highlight how we simultaneously tend, tame, encroach upon, and honor the natural world. Allan foregrounds the experience of place while alluding to complex histories, such as in this rendering of vernal pools in a former rock quarry on the island of Vinalhaven, Maine.

Layers of history, industry, destruction and renewal are contained in the painting's location. According to the Vinalhaven Historical Society, by 1826 the island's 100 year period as one of Maine's largest quarrying centers began. The granite from Vinalhaven became part of urban centers and monuments including the Washington Monument, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the New York Stock Exchange, and Pennsylvania Station in Philadelphia. Present day, Booths Quarry is a tranquil swimming hole, belying its history as a site of intense labor.

Prior to decimation and displacement by European colonial settlers, the members of the Wabanaki Confederacy inhabited the land for more than 12,000 years.