Client: Minnesota Marine Art Museum

Overview

Water, SunSet Memories, 2022, Acrylic on Tyvek with wooden frame and wire
This installation piece has a durational, performative quality; marking time, place, space, and experience. The color choices, the application of paint, and the gestural movement found in the work reflect my emotive states. The process brings to fruition several decades-long praxis, trusting in my precision in tandem with allowing the materiality of the paint to assert itself within the work. There is a tension between expertise and experimentation and allowing the material to respond to my movement. It’s an autobiographical work. The intentional tonal qualities of the blue hues are a meditation on the vastness of water and its complex coloration and reflections. On one end there are intense red, orange, green and yellow gestural marks, which represent a setting sun. Engulfed in vast blue, this particular part of the installation recalls memories and emotions.

Goals

The work may provide a moment, a meditative opportunity, as the viewer is surrounded by emotive and mesmeric color walls and audio. Physically, the public is immersed and also becomes integral to the work. In this way, the public activates the installation through their movement, gently swaying the walls of the room mimicing the slight movement of calm water.

Process

The installation was designed to stop one inch above the floor to alley for visitors' movement and airflow to create movement within the artwork. Jon Swanson Curator at Minnesota Marine Art Museum was instrumental in executing this design. The sound piece was recorded at Sun rise on the shore of Lake Superior, Bill Gamble and Benny Weinbeck consulted on the sound recording and helped edit the sound.

Additional Information

Recorded at sunrise on the shores of Lake Superior, Water Sounds: Sunrise, is a sound piece that also connects to memory and place. It is a collaboration with author and musician Bill Gamble, and Minnesota jazz musician Benny Weinbeck. The recording captures the vast mesmerizing sounds of the water lapping against the rocks and tumbling of the pebbles. Created as an hour and half-long recording, the sound is looped to give the visitor an immersive experience. Located in the Water: SunSet Memories room installation, the audio adds to the work making it an experiential site. The idea is to create a space of solis and contemplation inspired by large bodies of water found in Minnesota including Lake Superior.