From The Earth
This 2018 commission "From The Earth" is for the garden of Huntington Beach Senior Center, in Orange County, CA, a newly constructed, large, and progressive day-use center run by The City of Huntington Beach that focuses on active living.
The garden is a quiet reflective space and I wanted to propose some art that was human in scale, was dispersed throughout the garden and it's planting, and would reveal itself slowly as people explore it over repeated visits. The piece comprises sixteen columns with hand made and hand glazed tile. The materials had to be durable in the strong sunlight and coastal air so I worked with Berkeley ceramicist Mikael Kirkman who handmade all the tile, developed glaze colors for me, and generally gave me constant technical support.
The Center is located in a City park and adjacent to a nature center, so I drew on imagery of the plant-life around, and also noticed the abundant birds and monarch butterflies. One time whilst I was photographing the garden and pondering potential images, a big jackrabbit jumped out of the bush I was standing next to and ran across the lawn. It was a striking image that I immediately latched on to. First of all jackrabbits and hares make great shapes to work with, and are playful, energetic, and peaceful – all great qualities to bring into the garden. They also carry with them a lot of very positive symbolism across many cultures - they are the heroes of some Native American legends, one of the luckiest Chinese zodiac symbols, representative of transformation and the cycle of life in ancient Greek and Roman culture, and they feature as positive symbols in the mythology of Indian Buddhism, ancient Egypt, Ireland, and England. I took the jackrabbit images and mixed them with plant images, abstract designs, and phrases sourced from the Center's users in a fragmented, puzzle-like way that the use of tile encouraged.
The garden is a quiet reflective space and I wanted to propose some art that was human in scale, was dispersed throughout the garden and it's planting, and would reveal itself slowly as people explore it over repeated visits. The piece comprises sixteen columns with hand made and hand glazed tile. The materials had to be durable in the strong sunlight and coastal air so I worked with Berkeley ceramicist Mikael Kirkman who handmade all the tile, developed glaze colors for me, and generally gave me constant technical support.
The Center is located in a City park and adjacent to a nature center, so I drew on imagery of the plant-life around, and also noticed the abundant birds and monarch butterflies. One time whilst I was photographing the garden and pondering potential images, a big jackrabbit jumped out of the bush I was standing next to and ran across the lawn. It was a striking image that I immediately latched on to. First of all jackrabbits and hares make great shapes to work with, and are playful, energetic, and peaceful – all great qualities to bring into the garden. They also carry with them a lot of very positive symbolism across many cultures - they are the heroes of some Native American legends, one of the luckiest Chinese zodiac symbols, representative of transformation and the cycle of life in ancient Greek and Roman culture, and they feature as positive symbols in the mythology of Indian Buddhism, ancient Egypt, Ireland, and England. I took the jackrabbit images and mixed them with plant images, abstract designs, and phrases sourced from the Center's users in a fragmented, puzzle-like way that the use of tile encouraged.
