Coke Ovens, Leetonia

Oberlin alumnus Philip Koch (OC 1970) found his vocation as an artist at the Allen Memorial Art Museum in his freshman year, and has been inspired throughout his career by the work of Charles Burchfield. This drawing—a reworked version of one Koch began on location near the abandoned coke ovens in Leetonia, Ohio—powerfully evokes this site of industry and its natural environment. He writes, “It’s an odd subject for a drawing—two gaping dark openings on an otherwise sun drenched hillside. …The subject seemed ripe with potential. The irregular black mouths of these caves suggest all sorts of possible meanings—some perhaps a bit eerie but mysteriously attractive at the same time. … These coke ovens were part of the once widespread coal mining in Northeast Ohio. …Now in disrepair the ovens are slowly being grown over once again by nature.” The ovens were an early fascination of Burchfield, when the latter lived nearby.