2020 Rising Tide

This commission came about because a designer created a proposal for their client using a Photoshopped image of an earlier DC map project of mine, Tiber Creek and Other Lost Things, 2011. They added a blue wash, to fit the site, and I really liked how it looked and related to both blueprints and water.

Ideas started to churn and lots of testing ensued.

I evolved the map to a fly-over view, rather than an overhead view as in the original Tiber Creek piece. This worked out nicely for the space, which was on the 5th floor.

The oblique “flyover” angles ended up working really well in the space… referencing the overhead lighting design.

In March of 2020, at the beginning the Covid-19 pandemic, I decided to name the piece “Rising Tide”, in solidarity and resonance with the song of that name by my friend Letitia VanSant. https://letitiavansant.bandcamp.com/track/rising-tide-2

It’s on her album, Circadian. (Buy it here- https://letitiavansant.bandcamp.com/album/circadian)

“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.” -Letitia VanSant

The idea of Rising Tide also became a physical tool for the creation of the piece… thinking about the Potomac rising up, using the blue wash as the color coming from the river, washing across the clay map, routed by the cracks of streets and material. Splashes, cracks, breaks… the physicality suggests something breaking apart, something that cannot hold.

As Covid continued into the summer of rising up in protest and solidarity with George Floyd and of Black Lives Matter, Rising Tide took on more shades of meaning.