In the Spring of 2017 Matthew Colaizzo was an artist in residence at Anderson Ranch Art Center in Snowmass Village, Colorado. Located high in the Rocky Mountains, close to Aspen, the area is a big tourist destination for skiers and visitors looking to be immersed in the scenic beauty. This culture often overshadows the area’s history of mining and natural resource extraction. While at the residency, Colaizzo’s research drew heavily on these altered landscapes of strip mines, marble quarries, gypsum mines, concrete and gravel plants, and wind farms. Playing with the idea of “scenic,” his work focuses on large scale woodblock prints of landscapes that appear to be grand mountains; but after further investigation, it is revealed that this “view” is nothing more than rubble piles and excavated earth.