Design 5-09-07
Art Nouveau Poster
Design 2: FilligreeArtist’s Journal
Morton Brown
5.9.07
Since the time of my previous journal entry, I have been making the modifications to the preliminary design that were suggested at the community presentation on April 12th. If you will notice, however, I have two design iterations to present to you today for your consideration and feedback. The first design has very minimal modifications that came from our last meeting. At the community’s request, I have loosened up the cape on the flying kid and changed the colors of the quilt under her chin from brown to blue so that it no longer resembles some sort of snake. I have also opened up the fingers on her left hand to further take the image of the snake’s head away. I have removed the UCA logo on her shirt. I have chosen to keep the pink glasses. I have looked at many other options, but have kept these as they make the most sense conceptually and visually.
I have also added the three portraits of children from the Boys & Girls club in the conductor, the teacher and the businessman laying the railroad tracks. The electronic image may look a little dark to your eyes, but rest assured that their features will be more visible in person and at real scale. Also at the request of a couple of community members, I researched some local Native American tribes and found a ceremonial “Turkey Dance” costume used by the Caddo, who are indigenous to the area around Conway. I feel that this colorful costume is a vast improvement over the more generic, previous version.
It may also be hard for you to see the slight alterations I have made to the sky in the e-version, but I have but some yellows and pinks into the area just above the horizon in order to imply a new day dawning. The painting needed some pink to help the flying kid’s pinkish hue fit properly. These are the suggested changes that I was able to work in to the design. There were some other comments that I received that were really challenging, however, and have enticed me to offer some suggested changes to the design. See Design 2: Filligree.
Please take a deep breath and study this design before you react. It is a vast change, to be sure, but I am really excited about. Let me tell you why. I have shared each of my design iterations with friends of mine in Pittsburgh, New York and Philly. I know that the Conway community knows itself better than anyone from elsewhere, but consider that these people are looking at this with fresh eyes—they represent the visitors and new residents to your community. Most of the feedback has been positive, but a lot of people have been very uneasy with the three “pioneer” figures on the paintings left side: Robinson, Mattison, and Doyne. I considered removing them altogether—and that would in fact, “fix” the problem. The relationship between public schools, universities, industry and history are already in the buildings and the dress of the kids—we could do without our three pioneers…but I wanted to keep them--for posterity’s sake, if nothing else.
The other thing that gave me pause is that some community members were referring to this mural as “parochial”—possibly only seeing this as the usual type of mural laden with historical figures in a utopian landscape, and not considering some of the artistic liberties taken to make this painting dynamic and challenging. It is dynamic, but is it challenging? It is dressed up like a historical mural, but by the overemphasized scale of the flying kid, the curvature of the earth, and the pixilation, it indeed does leap into a contemporary work of art. But-can it leap further?
So-I was presented with a two-pronged dilemma: The pioneers are scaring people and no matter where I placed them in the picture plane, they seem out of place and a few persons don’t feel that this painting is progressive enough for Conway. Again, please refer to Design 2: Filligree. I went through about a dozen iterations to get to this one, but I think I am at a final place.
The pioneers needed to be placed in the past. I changed them to a sepia tone, but this was confusing within the existing picture plane. I added a strip of the Art Nouveau poster design from my original mural design from February to set this picture in a picture panel in the past, but also forming sprouting plant forms rising out of the shoulders of the pioneers. I wanted to place rising plant forms into this mural from the very beginning, and now they were back. Once I placed these figures inside their sepia panel, the composition was unbalanced. I tried more panels over the other figures, but nothing seemed to work. The last attempt (that was suggested by a friend) was to take the plant forms out of the rectangle, and see how they would work as free-floating objects. After a few tries, I found that I was making skywriting out of them—they became scribbles, energy and movement from the past into the future—a visual effect in the painting that stems from a very old motif, but by stretching, cropping, cutting and pasting becomes a very new, progressive and bold stylistic choice for this mural.
I am very excited about this design, but I need to hear from you before I present this as the final design to the Conway Public Art Commission. Please take a moment to consider these images and deliver your feedback either on the website blog www.uca.edu/mural, or by direct reply to my email bromorton@gmail.com, or call me at your convenience at 412-901-1546. I want and need to hear your comments before I can present this design.
I will need to deliver the final design to the Conway Public Art Commission by May 20. I will not present a final design without a good majority of the community’s support, if not a good consensus. I would ask you all to comment on this design as soon as possible so that we can move forward in the process.
Please note: the filigree design is made by computer program, and therefore, some small anomalies might be perceived. Please try to use your imagination in those instances, and know that if you approve this design, I will complete the design in paint for my final presentation the City officials.
Thanks as always.
-Morton
Morton Brown
5.9.07
Since the time of my previous journal entry, I have been making the modifications to the preliminary design that were suggested at the community presentation on April 12th. If you will notice, however, I have two design iterations to present to you today for your consideration and feedback. The first design has very minimal modifications that came from our last meeting. At the community’s request, I have loosened up the cape on the flying kid and changed the colors of the quilt under her chin from brown to blue so that it no longer resembles some sort of snake. I have also opened up the fingers on her left hand to further take the image of the snake’s head away. I have removed the UCA logo on her shirt. I have chosen to keep the pink glasses. I have looked at many other options, but have kept these as they make the most sense conceptually and visually.
I have also added the three portraits of children from the Boys & Girls club in the conductor, the teacher and the businessman laying the railroad tracks. The electronic image may look a little dark to your eyes, but rest assured that their features will be more visible in person and at real scale. Also at the request of a couple of community members, I researched some local Native American tribes and found a ceremonial “Turkey Dance” costume used by the Caddo, who are indigenous to the area around Conway. I feel that this colorful costume is a vast improvement over the more generic, previous version.
It may also be hard for you to see the slight alterations I have made to the sky in the e-version, but I have but some yellows and pinks into the area just above the horizon in order to imply a new day dawning. The painting needed some pink to help the flying kid’s pinkish hue fit properly. These are the suggested changes that I was able to work in to the design. There were some other comments that I received that were really challenging, however, and have enticed me to offer some suggested changes to the design. See Design 2: Filligree.
Please take a deep breath and study this design before you react. It is a vast change, to be sure, but I am really excited about. Let me tell you why. I have shared each of my design iterations with friends of mine in Pittsburgh, New York and Philly. I know that the Conway community knows itself better than anyone from elsewhere, but consider that these people are looking at this with fresh eyes—they represent the visitors and new residents to your community. Most of the feedback has been positive, but a lot of people have been very uneasy with the three “pioneer” figures on the paintings left side: Robinson, Mattison, and Doyne. I considered removing them altogether—and that would in fact, “fix” the problem. The relationship between public schools, universities, industry and history are already in the buildings and the dress of the kids—we could do without our three pioneers…but I wanted to keep them--for posterity’s sake, if nothing else.
The other thing that gave me pause is that some community members were referring to this mural as “parochial”—possibly only seeing this as the usual type of mural laden with historical figures in a utopian landscape, and not considering some of the artistic liberties taken to make this painting dynamic and challenging. It is dynamic, but is it challenging? It is dressed up like a historical mural, but by the overemphasized scale of the flying kid, the curvature of the earth, and the pixilation, it indeed does leap into a contemporary work of art. But-can it leap further?
So-I was presented with a two-pronged dilemma: The pioneers are scaring people and no matter where I placed them in the picture plane, they seem out of place and a few persons don’t feel that this painting is progressive enough for Conway. Again, please refer to Design 2: Filligree. I went through about a dozen iterations to get to this one, but I think I am at a final place.
The pioneers needed to be placed in the past. I changed them to a sepia tone, but this was confusing within the existing picture plane. I added a strip of the Art Nouveau poster design from my original mural design from February to set this picture in a picture panel in the past, but also forming sprouting plant forms rising out of the shoulders of the pioneers. I wanted to place rising plant forms into this mural from the very beginning, and now they were back. Once I placed these figures inside their sepia panel, the composition was unbalanced. I tried more panels over the other figures, but nothing seemed to work. The last attempt (that was suggested by a friend) was to take the plant forms out of the rectangle, and see how they would work as free-floating objects. After a few tries, I found that I was making skywriting out of them—they became scribbles, energy and movement from the past into the future—a visual effect in the painting that stems from a very old motif, but by stretching, cropping, cutting and pasting becomes a very new, progressive and bold stylistic choice for this mural.
I am very excited about this design, but I need to hear from you before I present this as the final design to the Conway Public Art Commission. Please take a moment to consider these images and deliver your feedback either on the website blog www.uca.edu/mural, or by direct reply to my email bromorton@gmail.com, or call me at your convenience at 412-901-1546. I want and need to hear your comments before I can present this design.
I will need to deliver the final design to the Conway Public Art Commission by May 20. I will not present a final design without a good majority of the community’s support, if not a good consensus. I would ask you all to comment on this design as soon as possible so that we can move forward in the process.
Please note: the filigree design is made by computer program, and therefore, some small anomalies might be perceived. Please try to use your imagination in those instances, and know that if you approve this design, I will complete the design in paint for my final presentation the City officials.
Thanks as always.
-Morton
