Cornerstone
Found Along The Path Of Stars + Angels
Acrylic on aluminum, copper and bronze
23’ x 60’ and 9’ x 23’
2015
Having worked with this building developer/owner since 1993, he asked us to provide design and art services for their latest and last building in this office park. In this building, the architect designed a large entry lobby with two buildings attached. This building is unique to the park and the large glass lobby presented some new challenges to us. First, we designed the floor pattern, which was to establish a sort of ‘desert life’ aesthetic theme. In this project, Linda played a central role in the design/development. In considering how to present an image that represented the thematic idea, we thought of some kind of ruins left behind from an ancient civilization. This emerged as a large ring inlaid in the granite floor, with bronze ribbons outlining the circle and extending down the corridors to the elevator lobbies.
We then designed a ceiling pattern to reflect the floor form which consists of a light ring with spokes located directly above the floor ring and includes two piercings that allow the structural columns to push up and through the ceiling plane. These holes are free form elliptical forms and are back in order to imply another space beyond that of the ceiling. We then specified lighting for the corridors and design treatments for the elevator lobby and cars.
Design for the central focal art piece turned out to be the most challenging aspect of this job and after exploring many options, we decided on an extensive wall treatment. For this, we conceived of covering the wall with copper and color, so we devised a grid for the 23’ high wall surface to which we assigned a portion for a mural painting to then surround it with patinaed copper strips. The first two layers are a blackened formed copper of 15” squares that were made in three different depths and randomly assembled to form a 30” high base. Above that we installed strips of copper, interlaced with cast bronze plates depicting a variety of desert flora and fauna images. These strips were all finished with a copper green patina and clear coated. We then capped the walls with a different color patina.
The mural was painted on 107 30” square aluminum on mdf panels. These were derived from a painting I had done several years before and selected by the client. It is painted with pastels and acrylic and titled: ‘Found On The Path Of Stars + Angels’. The entire piece was so large that I had to lay out a grid on a scaled print and paint each panel to resemble the corresponding grid square. I set up a painting space in which I could paint 12 panels at a time to maintain the flow through those pieces. I then built a series of cleats on a longer wall that allowed me to set up 7x 14 rows of panels at a time. I then went through and adjusted the larger painting in this way. Since the finished work was nearly twice that size, I then removed the finished panels and repeated until I had finished everyone. I the attached them all to the wall on
site on the cleat grid we installed for all the parts.
