Ephemeral Art at X

I recently had the honor and privilege of creating art for an amazing event at a Google campus.

"Gratitude" Earthscape Painting

This work was commissioned by GT's Synergy Kombucha in celebration of 20 years of making their kombuchas. After I made this piece we invited the pubic to rake their own flowers. An amazing day!


Photo by Jonathan Clark

Here is a video made by Jonathan Clark

International Peace Belt

photo by S. Smith Patrick

I had the honor to be selected as an artist with the International Peace Belt Project. This is a hand made chain link belt adorned with precious stones and coins from all over the world that is worn by an artist while they create and artwork. It has been worn by dancers, painters, musicians, and on this day I wore it (as a bandoleer) while raking a prayer mandala on the beach near San Francisco.

The belt is a part of the organization Artists for World Peace, which is a humanitarian group that brings needed services to communities around the world. The belt, charged with the energy of whichever artist it has been with then goes with the team to the areas where the humanitarian programs are being done. Its an amazing organization with a beautiful spirit and goal.

The day I did my artwork was filmed and will be combined with documentation of the other artists involved.

photo by S. Smith Patrick

Delightful advert for Barefoot Wines

This artwork was commissioned by Barefoot Wines to announce their newest flavor. The video they produced is so playful and fun! A far cry from the tendency towards seriousness that my art can have. The tide, which at first seemed to be out to wreck the day, in the end added a constant element of change and then came on cue to erase the entire piece in dramatic fashion for the camera.

Mandala group art creation

This is a timelapse of the making of a henna-inspired mandala by a group of family members who commissioned me to direct the creation of a marriage proposal. Everything about this day was stellar. And the group worked amazingly well together as the video shows.

'Memorium'

Here is the last painting I created during my recent stint in the Bay Area. This one was done in memory of the passing of a close friend's mother. She loved the flowers and the beach.

This design connects the perfection of geometry with the earthly realm of organic form, symbolizing the connecting of spirit and matter that is a living being. The tide represents the passing of all things. A beautiful offering to his mother and to us.

Playa Painting 'World Tree'

This piece was brought together last minute. My work was noticed by a member of a crew working on a short film to be entered into the Stanley Kubrick film competition and then to be sent around to film festivals.They came up from Los Angeles to film me and my beach. They had a design in mind for me to do but gave me license to make it in my way. It was a very challenging piece to do, to make something specific that could not be gridded out. I was very pleased with the outcome. It was about 150' in across.

World Beach Art Festival

 

I took part in the Island of Jersey's World Beach Art festival (lies between England and France). There were 3 other artists. We each chose a beach from the many fine ones on the island. I 'won' my beach in a coin toss. I was psyched. The location gave me something that would give life to the designs I had been working on.

A write up on my most recent piece

From the blog Se Petites Mains 

A fews weekends ago, we happened upon Ocean Beach which I find to be ridiculously dramatic--for the tide, the cliffs and, the typically, very foggy weather.

And this day, lived up to expectation. But the little ones still threw themselves into the surf, clothes and all, just like any other day at the sea. And as they swam, the most remarkable bit of art was being created behind them, just to the reaches of the tide.

Proposal Playa Painting

I was contacted by this man who had had his first date with his beloved on a day when I was doing a design on the beach. 3 years later he commissioned me to create an artwork to go along with his proposal- how romantic! I worked with 5 friends of his who created the field of flowers- a labor of love by his community :-). Click the image for a larger version so you can see the message in the upper left corner.

My art in a music video!

While the art didn't play a starring role, it did act as a central element in the drama, prompting the female protagonist to run to the beach and seek out her lover, who is standing in the midst of a Playa Painting... A very sweet video and song.

Earthscape Art- Academy of Sciences

We had the honor of being asked to participate in the grand reopening of the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco! Over the course of 2 days we gathered materials from around Golden Gate Park, which was an experience in itself, rambling through the park with the head arborist, learning about the history and characteristics of the park vegetation. Upwards of 40,000 people came through the park to see what is being reported as the greenest museum in the world. We were nestled directly between the Academy and the De Young art museum which was showing a Chihuly exhibit. Our installation was a bit of both worlds, blending organic systems with abstract details. In the image you can see the dome fo the Academy in the background (as proof!) Fun! Here's a bigger image of the design we did.

Last Rounds for Shpongle mask

This is the second to last appearance of the Shpongle Mask before it meets its maker at Burning Man. As we were patching it together for the party it got brought out of the garage for, we found some paper mache newsprint with the date of its creation- 2001! Amazing that it was still in pretty decent shape after all these years....

Trinity Plaza inastallation

A permanent installation done within the entrance hall to the Trinity Building on Market St in San Fransico. The installation was the creative child of Gregangelo of Velocity Circus. My 'Pod' light sculpture hangs amidst an assortment of rotating origami shapes. This installation ought to be there for several years apparently, making it perhaps eventually the most widely viewed of my sculptures....

Gregengelo Pyramid Project

Gregangelo of Velocity Circus is an interesting man to work for. I hope to have more clients who possess his enthusiasm for conceptual design and artistry.
Amy and I began work for him creating sculptural props for his main endeavor, Velocity Circus. The design parameters guided me to create the 'Meteors' collection, which are lowered during the final act of his touring show right on top of dancers clad in blacklight outfits but covered up with a black bag. As the bottom parts are left out of the pieces, the dancers end up within the sculptures. At a certain time in the routine they begin to come to life and wriggle out of the bags to reveal themselves dancing within the now rotating 'meteors'. Then on another cue, the meteors are lifted, when possible going out over the audience. It is a spectacular finale.
One day he brought us over to his house and up into the attic where, while repairing water damage to a bathroom, an attic space was revealed. Gregangelo's constantly whirring mind envisioned a whole environment that would start with a passageway hidden behind a bookshelf that would wind through a disorienting, labyrinthine corridor, and end at a pyramid. Whew! That began a 10 month project that would include many installations.

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The Labyrinth
Concept: Gregangelo
Design: Andres, Amy, Jeremy Lutes (lighting)

Once you open the bookshelf the first thing you notice is a plate on the floor etched with a Native American labyrinth design. LEDs on the sides constructed by Jeremy Lutes slowly cycle through colors, which are picked up by reflective coating on the acrylic plate.

This image shows the labyrinth as well as its reflection in the mirror mosaic wall which covers the entire hallway. LEDs from the sides give it color and a holographic film below gives it a rainbow shimmer.

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Eye of Torus
Concept: Gregangelo
Design: Andres, Tymm Twillman (lighting)

Above the Labyrinth is a wall-mounted Eye of Torus design. It is a wood plaque inlaid with an electroluminescent wire design. In the center is the pupil which is an LED plate that slowly cycles through colors. Originally it had a proximity sensor beneathe the surface which would have switched on the sculpture. Unfortunately the switch turned out to not work with the EL wire and LEDs.

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String Hall
Concept: Gregangelo
Design: Amy

After the labyrinth is a hall of disorienting fluorescent string hanging from the ceiling as well as a painting on the floor that mimics the string pattern. This section is lit with blacklight and is a riot of colors. The floor painting suggests that the floor has dropped away, leaving you hanging in space.
 

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Strobe room
Concept: Gregangelo
Design: Amy and Andres

Many things happening here.
-This corner section is bounded on two sides by a curtain of plastic strips that are usually used to cover industrial freezer entrances. We mimicked the circular mirror mosaic design on the strips using double sided reflective adhesive film. The result is a boxed in corner that appears to have four walls. The effect really works- even after knowing what it was, several times I halted before continuing through the curtain thinking I had come to a wall.
-Upon entering the corner area, a slow flashing strobe turns on which creates disorientation.
-On the floor is a spiral design of holographic reflective strips made by Amy that has a very 3-dimensional feel.

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Illusion hall and tube
Concept: Gregangelo
Design: Andres, Sean von Stade (tube infrastructure), Chris Northern (graphic design), Karen (material install)

One day I showed Gregangelo the work I had been doing with Moire patterns (see My Influences). He got excited about doing something large-scale and we started work on a room-sized installation. He had been wanting to have something that made a person have to turn around a few times, envisioning a tube that needed to be rotated. Moires weren't quite doing what we wanted (due to limitations of the way they function) and then I found the work of Akiyoshi Kitaoka. This became our new design foundation, ultimately remaking a few designs that we liked and covering the floor with a large printout of it.

In my opinion this installation still doesn't work as we would like- the illusion qualities of the designs aren't conveyed as effectively as we had hoped. However, the imagery is still quite confusing and interesting.

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Pyramid Entrance
Concept: Gregangelo
Design: Andres, Jeremy Lutes (dragonfly)

There's a lot happening here.
The entrance to the Star Hallway is overlapping sections of lycra that creates an opening that must be stretched open to enter, effectively seperating the next section. This 'door' is lit by a water-effects color-changing club light.
-In an upper corner is a LED and fiber optic lit drangonfly

-The most striking element is the light scultpure surrounding the 'portal' to the 'star hallway'. It is an EL wire inlaid in wood display that is similar to those found on actual Egyptian temples and tombs. The center circle is a color changing LED display.

-The newest addition: an Infinity Mirror. What you see me standing on to the left is an illusion that makes it appear as though I am standing over about 7 feet of space (the picture doesn't show the depth). its super trippy and cool!

Jeremy Lutes did the swirling LED display. I designed the layout.

 
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Star Hallway
Concept and Design: Andres

Gregangelo said- 'do what you would like with this hallway'. A blank canvas upon which to work. Before this I had not yet done 2-D designs, and since this I have expriemented with the possibilities with what at first seemed a limiting format, with amazing success. This short hall consists of string on black walls lit with blacklights. My desire was to create a design that unified the entire space, which led me to Islamic designs. Although somewhat simple in design, te effect is dramatic, creating an entirely seperate reality from the rest of the installations. I look forward to doing more installs like this one.

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The Pyramid
Concept: Gregangelo
Design: many many artists contributed to this section. My part was the sound system and the 'Pods'.

The end of the labyrinth is a pyramid 22' on a side and 8' tall in the center. The edges of the pyramid are traced by fiber optic lines that change color (by Jeremy Lutes). The walls are painted with a design that with regular light looks like an aurora borealis display. Under blacklight the display is of the night sky- thousands of stars in various patterns.

I installed the sound system which connects to his computer and pumps out spacey and loungey music.

I also contributed a 'Pod' which hangs from the center of the pyramid, lit with blacklights as well as modified pods which as as decorative covers for the blacklight tubes around the room.

The overall effect of this room is of a place removed from reality- the speration is total, truly an experience.