Good morning all!  So many cool new things in the works, my head is swirling.  August has been a whirlwind of new commissions and pieces, including a corporate award, a massive residential commission, two incredibly cool collaborations in the works, and some new pieces to the Moon series which I am particularly proud of.  I think I can safely say that I am the luckiest person in the world.  I’ll be sharing more on all of the above over the next few weeks!  For today, a little copper nostalgia…

A few weeks ago I traveled up to Conneaut Lake, PA.  The weather was beautiful, and the people lovely.  As the party waned, a few of us took a walk past the lake and stumbled onto the most amazing place… a semi-functional amusement park, complete with wooden roller coaster with painted entryway, old-fashioned carousel, and giant mechanical clown head that probably once used to slowly, creepily nod up and down.

The whole place was surreal in that half of it was still functioning.  The far end of the park was filled with kids, cotton candy and cheap games made from beer bottles and rings.  The other half was in a state of decay.  Plagued by fires (including at least one case of arson during renovation), the old glass globe lights had slumped into crescent shapes from the heat of a fire that had decimated the ballroom.  The wooden restroom was nothing but charred remains.  All of the rides and games in the northern section of the park were abandoned, frozen in a strange time warp.

Naturally I did what any good artist would do, I grabbed my camera ;)

slumped lights & Sky Diver:

Some of the shots were just for fun, like so crazy cool carosel pics taken while the ride was spinning.  But several photos of rides silhouetted against the clear sky lent themselves to really beautiful photo transfer
ferris wheel, Blue Streak (from below the big hill) and cat & mouse:

I think the black on copper has a beautiful nostalgic quality, and captures the sort of “frozen in time” feeling of the park to me.

The community is in the process of renovating the park, it has just been a matter of funding and time.  (Although I do believe they just won a $50,000 grant from a Pepsi Refresh challenge to renovate the Blue Streak: http://www.refresheverything.com/conneautlakeparkbluestreak so many congrats to everyone involved!!!)  And not that I can come anywhere close to that amount, part of the sale of these pieces will be given back to the community to help with their efforts.

Well that’s all for now, as I must get back to work — I am applying for the CPAC Creative Workforce Fellowship, an artist’s grant that would provide many happy returns ;)  I’ve given myself the rather ambitious goal of creating an entirely new body of work for the occasion, 15 pieces in… 9 days.  Anything’s possible, right?

until next time,

Chris