The Latest KAC Photos

I'll be putting the finishing touches on today. Still waiting on the window film, but that should arrive in the next week. I've really enjoyed developing and executing this project. The space was tricky and it was the first time I had to work around foot traffic. It's been beneficial to blog through the process. I always document my process as part of the process - it helps me make future decisions about the piece and is a literal embodiment of the history of marks made. I want the work to capture time like a film still. I also want to create a time-based experience for the viewer that causes them to take note of their surroundings and hopefully find new humorous or puzzling moments every time they walk through. It's also an exercise in tackling a conventional space with common objects used as value and shape on a human scale.

Almost Done

I get the feeling the banister wants some paint on it...

More KAC Install

A few more photos from last night's install. I'm about 75% done. Just waiting on the window film and will probably add a dash more color. Muted yellow maybe. The magazines flow down the stairs and round the corner near the entrance. There is also a line that moves up the stairs in jagged German Expressionist style. Though I have many ideas about why I do what I do in these spaces, I like to take my cues from Fellini who explained that it is dangerous to over analyze our creative decisions because it can stifle the creative process.

KAC Brainstorm

New loose sketch for how I will continue on with the install. Covering the bottom portion of the windows on the left side of the space will be a transparent film with an image from a photograph I took. The photo has some bright yellow trees surrounded by a heavy fog and dotted with telephone poles and wires in SODO. The yellow on the wall and floor will tie in the window image. The green/blue stuff represents high-gloss latex paint covering magazines and Cliff's Notes I found at the Value Village.  Of course, due to the way I work, everything is subject to change. I'm buzzing with anticipation.

Kirkland Arts Center Day 1

Here's the beginning stage of my KAC install. I'm working mainly off the cuff, but have drawings to reference if I get lost. I'm playing off of the architectural and painted elements already present in the space such as the brick, wood, and diamond pattern on the floor. I've got some tricks up my sleeve yet.

Two New Collages

The top photo is about 4'x2', mixed media on Rives. The bottom photo is about 2'x1', mixed media on paper. I see them both as exercises in composition, color, space, and materials. I'm experimenting with surface, magazine transfers, and incorporating the blue tape into the work that was used to affix it to the wall while working. I'm presently fascinated by the order in which a color or shape is laid down and how what comes after it affects whether it sits on top of the surface or under it. For example, the typewriter was laid in before the brown ink ground around it, yet it appears to be hovering above or sitting on the ink ground. I also like how the typewriter becomes a weird 3-d accordion fold that then spills into a large white ground. The paper beneath the white paint strives to remind us that this is not an image, but white paint on paper. In other words it shows a history of what came first in the process (the collaged paper) and refuses to let us accept the work as merely image.

A similar thing happens in the top photo where the white gesso meets the white paper. Because the gesso has body and is a much brighter white than the paper, it subtly sits on top of the paper even though from a distance it could almost blend right in. There are two reasons for this: 1. The pencil drawing of the box is drawn to look like it goes behind the gesso and 2. The gesso caught and trapped some eraser bits, drawing attention to the gesso's surface and its differentiation from the white paper around it.