Billboards Part 2

I had expectations that these billboards would move around more frequently than they did and although there is still another month left, something tells me they will stay where they have been since November. Here are some photographs of the second and probably last locations for both the large one and the "neighborhood size."

Unlit at night since I first saw it in December 2018 (a two minute exposure from the driveway of the car sales lot).

Overall, I am very happy to have my art displayed on a billboard - it has always been a dream of mind and it remarkably came true. I had big plans on photographing the original framed photograph in front of it but this and the first location were not suitable for that purpose. Next large scale project here we come (because there always is one)....

Night and Day: High Art Billboard Project

Currently on display in Indianapolis at the following locations:

1-465 W., 500 ft. West of 96th Street near the junction of I-865 and 4460 N. Shadeland Avenue, 400 ft. south of 46th Street.

Coming Soon to a Billboard in Indianapolis

"High Art Billboard Project Artists Revealed" from Nuvo

One of the best parts, aside from seeing one of my photographs larger than life as public art in a space where it would never be shown, is that I get to keep the vinyl billboard at the end of the year. I already envision a few ideas that may or may not be accomplished once that time arrives. The first one is installed on 3 September and documentation is sure to come.

"Autobiography in Water" is finally complete ...

... and it feels so good to only be working on eight series instead of nine. I exhibited the artwork as part of a sabbatical show in November and updated the website last week. Here are some highlights from the Atrium Gallery at Ball State University in November 2017.

Thunderbird Hotel, Marfa, Texas, 2013 (printed on Photo Tex vinyl at 100" x 150" - such a treat to see this photograph so large though hanging vinyl was stressful)

Also, I was fortunate to collaborate with Jacqueline Suskin who contributed three poems to the exhibition (after sending her images, she responded, I printed her poems and mounted them alongside the photographs).

Rebecca Solnit quote, Redfish Lake, Idaho, 2014 - 2015, Thunderbird Hotel, Marfa, Texas, 2013, Cape Disappointment, Washington, 2014 - 2015, and Cape Horn, Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho, 2014 - 2015

Neptune Pool, Hearst Castle, San Simeon, California, 2014 - 2015, San Solomon Springs, Balmorhea, Texas, 2013, The Springs, Idaho City, Idaho, 2014, Drekkingarhylur, Iceland, 2015 - 2016, and Miracle Hot Springs, Buhl, Idaho, 2014

Key West, Florida, 2015 - 2017, Kirkham Hot Springs, Idaho, 2015, Perth, Australia, 2017, Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada and Fjallsjökull Glacial Lagoon, Iceland, 2014 - 2016 and the "islands"

Drekkingarhylur, Iceland, 2015 - 2016

The "islands": Rolla Island, Doubtful Sound, New Zealand, 2016, Rooster Rock, Columbia River Gorge, Oregon, nd, Fisherman Island, Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho, 2014, and Columbia River Gorge, Oregon, nd

Key West, Florida, 2015 - 2017 (archival pigment print displayed underneath a plexi-glass box filled with water - every other day it was topped off)

Arizona Inn, Tucson, Arizona, 2016 - 2017 (1:33 video - the biggest technical accomplishment), Lake Tahoe, California, 2016 - 2017, and a slide show of Coronado, Del Mar and La Jolla Coves, San Diego, California, 2015 - 2017

Detail from the slide show of La Jolla Coves, San Diego, California, 2015 - 2017

Lake Tahoe, California, 2016 - 2017

Gallery talk (photo by Jennifer Halvorson), November 2017

The sad process of de-installation, November 2017

De-install continued...

All the vinyl text from the walls

Here is hoping I find another location to exhibit it (with a lot of help hanging and weeding vinyl from my friends).

This is Happening Wednesday

Arts Center Lecture Hall, 2400 E. Kenwood Boulevard, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee

It's been a minute (rather 3,732,276 minutes or 7 years, 1 month and 7 days ago) since I was last in Milwaukee. Hannah and I were driving through after floating the last of the styrofoam cakes in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I am looking forward to returning!

Something New is Brewing

An antipode is defined as the part of the earth that is diametrically opposite. The term was first used in 1549 in relationship to Australia and New Zealand’s position on the globe, contrasting with Western Europe. I will approach it as the place or condition furthest from “here.” I am searching for physical and metaphorical antipodes and will represent them through photographs created in the studio, a fabricated landscape, or their exact location on earth. In its most simple terms, my interpretation will show how "here" affects "there" and "there" impacts everywhere.

Icelandic Blue Pantone 15-3908

At Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts, I made the mock-up for my first small run publication, Icelandic Blue: Pantone 15-3908. In July, with a lot of help from Fred Bower (my colleague who teaches graphic design), it was ready to print.

I loved how the publishing company thought they accidentally smudged the front cover but then realized the fingerprints and dark marks were on the original files. With the exception of the addition of my copyright information, the cover represents the notebook I carted all over the country, documenting what we wanted to see each day and what we actually accomplished.

The inside, however, reflects upon the act of reading paint samples for a year (before and after the trip to the Arctic Circle). I tried to find direct and indirect references to Iceland and then photographed the colors that most accurately described them while traveling around the country. Some were successful comparisons and others were not.

Many of the artworks in the Autobiography in Water series expand upon the methods of presentation that I constantly rely upon to show my artwork. This particular product is a clear reference to Ed Ruscha's sixteen limited edition publications from 1963-1979.

250 were printed and are available for $10 plus shipping. Email me if you are interested in acquiring one!

"Material Time" with Will Knipscher at University of Dayton

Material Time with Will Knipscher opens tomorrow at Gallery 249 at the University of Dayton. Here are some photographs of the installation.

Cape Horn, Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho, 2015

Cape Disappointment, Washington, 2015 and a piece from Where the Light Goes by Will

Two more images from Where the Light Goes and Miracle Hot Springs, Buhl, Idaho, 2014

Thunderbird Hotel, Marfa, Texas, 2013 and another work from Where the Light Goes

Kirkham Hot Springs, Idaho, 2015 on the right

Will's three dimensional origami prints showing the process of creating his photograms in the front and Cape Horn... and Hearst Castle, San Simeon, California, 2015 in the background.

The opening reception is from 5-7 PM tomorrow night with a gallery talk at 6 PM.

Arizona Inn Encore

I haven't met a location in the Autobiography in Water series that is as troublesome to resolve as the Arizona Inn in Tucson. I returned in October for a wedding and stayed there for the first time in my life. I recorded every moment I was in the pool, trying to swim multiple times a day. I made sound recordings of a very unusual bird song and swatted dozens of mosquitoes.

I even saved all the towels I used in the hotel room and documented them before returning them to the cabana laundry bin. I am hesitating on how to properly tie all of this together but on the bright side, I will be returning soon. May the answer come quickly as visiting all the locations in this series is coming to a rapid close.

Belated San Diego Post

I am slowly knocking out the last of the U.S. destinations in the Autobiography in Water series. Last August, I visited my parental homeland, floated giant photographs in La Jolla, Del Mar, and Coronado, collected water samples and buried a chunk of Camden's Rock. I spent my birthday with my cousin Mark visiting the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego to see the Nicole Eisenman exhibition and the expansive sculpture garden.

Nancy Rubins, Pleasure Point, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

Ed Ruscha, Detail of Brave Men Run in My Family, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

Detail of Nicole Eisenman's installation in the exhibition Dear Nemesis, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

Detail of Robert Irwin's installation 1º 2º 3º 4º, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

Pre-float with my Uncle Paul and cousin Mark (I cannot thank my family enough for their assistance during this task)

 Camden's Rock was buried here at Coronado.

Water sample on top of the mound where Camden's Rock was buried, Coronado Beach

Neptune Pool, Hearst Castle, San Simeon, California

Last December, I took this photograph of the drained and dirty Neptune Pool at Hearst Castle on a drizzly, cold day. It was an ideal subject for the cyanotype process because it was anything but what I remembered it and making it blue would correspond with that memory. I spent many Fridays in February creating the digital negatives and the first "draft" above. However, it was not right.

The scale was off and I wanted more of an abstraction. After some brainstorming with Brent, the above work prints were made. Ironically, I had a little help with the texture in the reflection from the Riverside Hotel in Garden City, Idaho.

Fast forward to July and the digital negatives were made and the next round of cyanotypes, as seen drying on the racks below. The new dimension is 50" x 40".

Yet a third round was created to perfect some of the inconsistencies in exposure and a mock-up was documented in the Atrium Gallery at school. I have the highest hopes of creating a glass version of this prior to Brent's and my collaborative exhibition, Treading Water, in January.