Paris Entrance

Right now I'm calling this piece Paris Entrance. It is based off of an entrance at the Paris Casino in Vegas. I'm pretty excited about the light on this one. I've been playing around a lot more with different ways to shape the light. I'm also using a spot light with a dimmer, so I can get a warmer light. Looking at the pictures above on my computer right now it seems that it is hard to see the painted elements. I hope that it is because of the sunlight in the room right now.

This piece is based off the ceiling and chandelier in a picture of a theater that I found. The light apparatus is a little different than many of my other lights. I used paper and foil to shape the light. These are a mixture of HDR and regular images.

This piece is “Chandelier Space (Bellagio Casino, Golden Nugget Sign).” Again, a little different apparatus. Much larger with more presence.

I am in a nice groove in the installation studio. I've got endless ideas and am working and playing freely. Moving though the pieces much faster than ever. I think some will be really simple, quick things.

Here are the ball point pen drawings that I have been making of spaces. Most are from palaces, the last one is from a theater. I have been doing some drawings from themed casinos too. I am using these drawings to work from for the installations that I am currently working on. The above drawings will probably manifest themselves in the wall pieces in some way. I am also thinking of taking these out of the sketchbook and making some drawings like these larger scale and on nicer paper. Sorry for the poor quality images, you can click on them to enlarge and get a better look at the marks.

Access to the Magnificent Room

This is my favorite drawing. It was in the show. I wish they could all be like this one. Below are some more drawings, some were in the show, some didn't make the cut.

Below are a few non-HDR images of the installation. I think they look a little better.

Chandelierroom 1

Here is a piece that I just did. It is based off of the below drawing. There are things I would do differently, or improvements that I would make if I remade the piece; but it works for me. It was a quick work. It took a few hours of time (spaced out across a couple of weeks, of course) and is now painted over. I am trying to do quicker works. Letting things happen and working more freely. Quick and loose. We'll see what comes out of it. I'll keep posting as I go through them. This is going to probably force me to get more simple with the lights, at least for now. I might have to take a break from this type of working in order to build some nicer stands, pedestals, or floor platforms for the lights though.
The brown on the wall should probably fade more as is gets closer to the floor.

It's Alive

Well. I guess it's been a while since the last post. I'm alive and back at it. Here are the images of my solo show at Number 35...four months late. The title of the show was "Access to the magnificent room." The image above is of the piece I did in the window of the gallery. I've been trying to get the images to look the way that I want them to, but have been having trouble. These images aren't ideal, but they are the best of the HDR images that I've been able to make. I'll post images of the drawings soon, apparently, they are too big and I don't feel like resizing them right now. The title of the installation is "The effect of its breadth (Flamingo Casino, Las Vegas; Upper Belvedere, St. Gall Cathedral; Golden Nugget Sign)".

As I get more and better images, I'll throw them up here. These images aren't totally representative of the experience of the installation as the light in the gallery changed throughout the course of the day. These were taken at night just before de-installation. I was pretty happy with the show all and all. There are some new things going on with this installation. By the end of prepping for the show I was getting a bit tired of the piece and didn't really begin to like it until it was time to take it down. So it usually goes. I felt like the piece was a little overworked, at least in my head it was. Most of you probably know, but I was mentioned by Holland Cotter in the New York Times. As brief as it was, it was pretty exciting. Here is the link to the online version of the article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/arts/design/14les.html?_r=2&ref=design&oref=slogin

If you click on the "multimedia/interactive" picture on the left (a picture of dudes dancing), it will take you to an interactive map of the city. Select the Lower East Side and there is an image of my piece and a nice little description. It says I use cardboard and masking tape, but I use neither of those.

Apparently Roberta Smith saw the show just before it came down and said that she liked it. Alas, she didn't write anything. But, I'm happy it was seen.

What have I been doing lately? We'll it seems I've taken a bit of a break from making like mad. I read the Border Trilogy by Cormic McCarthy. McCarthy has become my new literary obsession. I cleaned up my studio. I've been playing with a new foam cutter. The art has been slow. Hit a bit of a slump, but am coming out of it strong. I wanted to work differently on the installation, and am on the verge of working that out. I've read a book on the Baroque and finally finished "The Fold." I'm currently doing tons of the ballpoint pen drawings of spaces. Those drawings are developing nicely and I am hoping to use them to build up a wealth of stuff to work from to make wall pieces. Working on ideas now mostly. More to come...