Temporal Tides
Corpus Christi, TX USA (2024)
About:
To start off the year, I flew to Texas to paint on this massive old abandoned theater. Having not painted much in 2023 while focusing on other projects, it was... daunting at first. Getting back up on the wall with an 80' lift is a hell of a way to start a year and it always takes a moment to refresh my mind, even if I just painted yesterday. That said, I love how this piece turned out and how it interacts with the surroundings. On to the challenges, of which there were many.
As always, it's a bit complicated to paint what I want and the initial "suggestions" for this wall from the local council were pretty rigid and nearly complete concepts, so it took some finagling and stubbornness on my part to paint this. After painting one of my favorite walls to date (here) in Logansport, Indiana in 2020, I've often had the push for "3D effect" or "you paint people, so paint people!" when in reality, what I paint depends heavily on how I connect with the space, the story, the wall (surface texture and composition), and the surroundings. This means that I never have designs that I don't use and can repurpose for other walls as they're always designed for a specific place. It also means that I don't just paint one "thing" or style, which often creates some issues as organizers/groups tasked with selecting artists often have a very specific idea in mind of what I will do when in reality, they're expecting what feels like a copy of that piece. I view my works as illustrations and how to best illustrate a story varies from place to place and moment to moment. At any rate, after having a request for someone stepping out of the wall and another for a fisherman casting out of the wall like a Bass Pro Shop ad, but with the addition of "do what you inspires you" tacked on as guidance, I pushed back and proposed to do this painting based on an old photo taken in Corpus Christi in 1939 by photographer, Russell Lee.
Anyways, the council wanted a topic which was relevant to the local history and with the focus of fishing. At first, they rejected the proposal as "it looks like river fishing" and asked that the men's ethnicity be changed in order for them to be Latino-presenting. As with the topic, and due to this being based heavily on a local photo of historical significance and not just a reference, I pushed back and wanted to pay homage to the men in this photo and felt it would be disrespectful to replace them for someone else when they were actually there. It doesn't get more historically accurate or locally relevant than that. Once that challenge subsided following a 12-page proposal with supporting images and the history of the photos/photographer, I was finally given the go-ahead. Another challenge with this piece was the requirement to make the rocks that they're standing on resemble the reddish/pinkish rocks that exist locally. I typically don't paint minute details as my works are generally meant to be viewed from afar, so this challenged me throughout not just the design process, but also while painting. The question of "how can I paint the rocks without explicitly painting rocks?" was mulled repeatedly before I realized halfway through painting, "I can use the bricks and the building next to it!". In the initial photo of the wall, I hadn't realized that the wall to the right existed (or that I could paint on it), but once I arrived in Corpus, I really wanted to find some way to tie the entire wall together in the 9 or 10 days that I had to paint.
Challenges aside, the organizers of the project did the best that they could while working with a council to make design decisions and went out of their way to accommodate all of the artists. The location for my wall was also great as it overlooked the waterfront and was visible from my hotel window every morning when I woke up. I always wish that some projects would go a bit more smoothly in the beginning, but as with every other, once past those hurdles, this was a real pleasure, especially getting to talk to the other artists and the overwhelmingly positive feedback from community members while painting.
As always, it's a bit complicated to paint what I want and the initial "suggestions" for this wall from the local council were pretty rigid and nearly complete concepts, so it took some finagling and stubbornness on my part to paint this. After painting one of my favorite walls to date (here) in Logansport, Indiana in 2020, I've often had the push for "3D effect" or "you paint people, so paint people!" when in reality, what I paint depends heavily on how I connect with the space, the story, the wall (surface texture and composition), and the surroundings. This means that I never have designs that I don't use and can repurpose for other walls as they're always designed for a specific place. It also means that I don't just paint one "thing" or style, which often creates some issues as organizers/groups tasked with selecting artists often have a very specific idea in mind of what I will do when in reality, they're expecting what feels like a copy of that piece. I view my works as illustrations and how to best illustrate a story varies from place to place and moment to moment. At any rate, after having a request for someone stepping out of the wall and another for a fisherman casting out of the wall like a Bass Pro Shop ad, but with the addition of "do what you inspires you" tacked on as guidance, I pushed back and proposed to do this painting based on an old photo taken in Corpus Christi in 1939 by photographer, Russell Lee.
Anyways, the council wanted a topic which was relevant to the local history and with the focus of fishing. At first, they rejected the proposal as "it looks like river fishing" and asked that the men's ethnicity be changed in order for them to be Latino-presenting. As with the topic, and due to this being based heavily on a local photo of historical significance and not just a reference, I pushed back and wanted to pay homage to the men in this photo and felt it would be disrespectful to replace them for someone else when they were actually there. It doesn't get more historically accurate or locally relevant than that. Once that challenge subsided following a 12-page proposal with supporting images and the history of the photos/photographer, I was finally given the go-ahead. Another challenge with this piece was the requirement to make the rocks that they're standing on resemble the reddish/pinkish rocks that exist locally. I typically don't paint minute details as my works are generally meant to be viewed from afar, so this challenged me throughout not just the design process, but also while painting. The question of "how can I paint the rocks without explicitly painting rocks?" was mulled repeatedly before I realized halfway through painting, "I can use the bricks and the building next to it!". In the initial photo of the wall, I hadn't realized that the wall to the right existed (or that I could paint on it), but once I arrived in Corpus, I really wanted to find some way to tie the entire wall together in the 9 or 10 days that I had to paint.
Challenges aside, the organizers of the project did the best that they could while working with a council to make design decisions and went out of their way to accommodate all of the artists. The location for my wall was also great as it overlooked the waterfront and was visible from my hotel window every morning when I woke up. I always wish that some projects would go a bit more smoothly in the beginning, but as with every other, once past those hurdles, this was a real pleasure, especially getting to talk to the other artists and the overwhelmingly positive feedback from community members while painting.
Big thanks to Aalec O'Donnell who was tasked with all of the communication and coordinating the design process, as well as seemingly everything else related to making our stay in Corpus as top-notch as it could be. He really went out of his way to be available every waking moment and it's because of him that the experience was as great as it was.
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