2020 Rising Tide Studies

I love making studies, because they are real questions, and free to become whatever they become. Some get selected for finished works after they’ve served their purposes. These are the ones that made the cut.

The blue studies were made during the production of Rising Tide, to work out material language… how the cracking worked (not too big, not too small), the right white, the right color of blue, how the wash flowed between the cracks, how much the clay map warped when the blue wash re-hydrated it.  . .
. . . . . .

The larger project, Rising Tide,  came about because a designer created a proposal for their client, creating a Photoshopped image of an earlier project of mine, Tiber Creek and Other Lost Things, 2011, which used mapping of DC, and appealed to the designers for this site. They cropped and stretched picture, added a blue wash, and inserted it into a model of the proposed site.

I liked how their mock-up looked, and agreed to give it a go. Lots of testing ensued.

Not even knowing that the piece would be installed on the 5th floor, I was already thinking about evolving the map to a fly-over view, rather than a straight on, perpendicular view as in the original Tiber Creek piece.

I really love how the work turned out. The oblique angles ended up working really well in the space, too… I love how they work with the lighting design.

In March of 2020, amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, I decided to name the piece “Rising Tide”, in tribute to my friend Letitia VanSant. https://letitiavansant.bandcamp.com/track/rising-tide-2

It’s on her new album, Circadian. (Buy it here!! https://www.amazon.com/Circadian-Letitia-Vansa…/…/B081KQY4SD )

“It’s a miracle that we’re on this planet and alive, and can vibrate the world with music. I want to share these moments of gratitude.”

In April 2020, with the murder of George Floyd, and the subsequent Fed/UpRising of Black Lives Matter, I felt the resonance of Rising Tide as I joined with my neighbors in protest and community action.

“Everyone of us has a role to play in the great rising up across the nation in defense of Black lives and to demand justice for the victims of police and vigilante violence. Here we offer ways to come together, share, and take action.

‘Power concedes nothing without a demand.’ “

www.defendingblacklives.org/