In 2023, I was asked to do an outdoor mural in a framed outdoor panel in Pioneer Square. Earlier this month, during First Thursday, the piece was shown again in a gallery setting.
At 10 feet square, and at a height that required me to use a lift, it was pushing the limits of my gestural abstract methods, where I find my “subject” as I work and don’t start with sketches or plans.
An added wrinkle was that I essentially had to complete it in a weekend.
It wasn't like working alone in my studio. The site was at a pretty busy corner where all kinds of people were walking by as I started working.
There were construction workers, some residents on the block, lots of sports fans walking to games at the nearby stadiums, people eating at restaurants on the street, and people of every age walking by.
In other words, not a crowd you would usually encounter inside one of the quiet galleries in the neighborhood, and I loved that.
I didn’t attract any attention at first, even when waving a paint roller around at the end of a long pole, apparently at random, to get something happening on the wall.
As the design started to appear, more and more people began stopping to watch and talk to me.
I eventually had to put on headphones and go up on the lift to get work done, but at one point, I could hear a round of applause from the folks below as I worked up on the lift, something I definitely don’t get in my studio.
It was a great experience, and it felt great to see so many folks stopping to take photos in front of it during the time it was up. I’ve had a few years of nice feedback from people who saw it there.
It was such a different experience to see it inside with gallery lighting and in a completely different context. We even tried shifting the panels it was painted on, creating alternate versions of the work.
My work as a whole keeps changing, but it’s fascinating how even a single painting can live and change with time and environment.
