RISING TIDE
Rising Tide is a project originally envisioned for a 2011 residency at the de Young Museum. A 12 x 30’ painting, acrylic on polyester. The work was begun in November, enlisting the aid of museum interns and other skilled visiting artists.
Following the month long residency in Golden Gate Park, I was invited to continue the process in January 2012 at Richmond Art Center. The painting generated thoughtful dialogues with many visitors at both sites. That process was more interesting to me than the finished product. At present the still incomplete painting is rolled up and stored in my studio, awaiting its next possible venue.
Before the Gold rush everything east of Montgomery Street was bay and the whole financial district was mudflat. With the onset of melting icecaps, one begins to speculate on a future resembling the past. Probably we’ll still have our iPhones, which should make for some interesting juxtapositions. Nature is a powerful force and wants to reclaim its own. Weeds push through the sidewalk cracks, ivy crumbles walls, water rises. Time changes everything.
I am drawn to this landscape of transformation. As the artists of another time were recording the real and imagined ruins of the past, I am interested in the ruins of the future. It is not a question of how we can prevent the occurrence of climates changes (man made, for sure), but rather how we can adapt to them and survive. Here is one imagined scenario. No claims are made for factual accuracy. Remember it was artists who put wings on angels.