Good morning everyone!

I have a few fun new things to share.  Mostly because I’ve been trying to woo a corporate client interested in a large installation.  I can’t talk about it til committee decisions are made, which happens in dog years, but I can show you the sample pieces I did for one of the designs:

Birds in Flight

These are two full-sized pieces I made as samples for a larger multi-panel installation. Two dozen individual pieces would have collectively formed a landscape with birds landing and nesting on the left, and flying off to the right, eventually breaking out of the picture and becoming silhouettes. The full design was ultimately discarded in favor of a piece that more closely connects with the campus.
Artistically speaking, “Bird Landing” (above) is one of the more complex pieces I’ve made. Both the wing and the bird hover above the background, at different levels. The wings have detailed cut lines, and the color and shading is something I hadn’t experimented with before. I’m still deciding when, how, and if I will use the effect again! While I’ll admit I’m a little on the fence — the purist in me believes there’s no sense in using metal to create something that looks like a painting – it has gotten a very strong “WOW!” response from others.

 

Bird in Flight, 12×16 inches

“Bird in Flight” is a much simpler piece, but the one I fell in love with. The silhouette is very striking, and the color has a lot of beautiful subtle variations. The bird hovers just above the background, and the wing tips extend past the edge and darken almost to black.  It’s one of the few pieces that turned out exactly like its mental counterpart, and I love the sense of calm it creates.

An Aside

I caught a snippet on the radio about a pilot program to fund arts education in public schools.  When asked to speculate on the use of the money, the guest quipped “They will use it to do what they were doing five years ago, before all their programs were cut.”  She went on to discuss the value of a creative education vs. “teaching to the test”.  How experts always talk about our ability to innovate as being the key to our strength in a global economy.  But how we fail to realize that after a certain point, as standardized test scores increase, creativity and innovation goes down — in measurable ways (i.e. patents & intellectual property), documented across countries and cultures.

Politics aside, it was a good discussion on finding the balance between creative problem solving and rote learning.  And interesting in light of what I’ve been working on.  I’ve created three site-specific designs for one project that may never come to fruition.  If one is chosen, two are automatically discarded.  Not because they are bad, just because another was slightly better.  Or clicked more with the space.  Or had a different bird on it.  At best, 2/3 of my work will never see the light of day.  But the process helps sharpen and refine my skills, and leads to new ideas like the pieces above.  They say knowledge is never wasted, and I believe the same can be said for creative experiences.

 

Art Card of the Month

May’s mini art was inspired by the piece above, and I made an extra just for you!  I haven’t had a chance to list it in my shop, but if you want to grab it, just email me.  It’s $25 for the 2.5 x 3.5 inch piece, complete with mini easel.

Take care, and have a great weekend!

Chris