Walk-in-Paintings

These are interactive installations that have come from influences such as Niki Saint Phalle, Tim Rollins, Joseph Beuys & Mark Dion. They tend to be focused conceptually on some aspect of science. I usually work collaboratively with my classes to fabricate the installation.

I sometimes paint with excessive texture. I wondered if I could make a painting so deep that I could crawl into it. A Walk-in-Painting is a large painting (my 1st was done on an old garage door). I cut a hole in the painting so that people can enter it. On the inside, I construct a space that reflects the aesthetics and ideas of the entrance painting. This includes the ceiling and floor; it is inclusive. Often, Kevin Paluzzi creates sound effects and I may add any number of other effects like fog machines, fans or lighting effects.

Inside the painting, I set-up a task that each person should do. Sometimes, I arrange human interactions. I show these works at festivals or other places that draw a large audience.

Somos la Musica, Rosarito, Baja California Norte, Mexico 2002.

This was installed at the inaugural event of a political organization that used art to make change, it was called Cultura a la Mano. Audience was invited to enter the abstract ear and make music. The piece was meant only for the day, but instead they kept it up for nearly a year.

Opening my Eyes Underwater, San Diego, 2007

This piece was a look at San Diego's fresh water organisims explored through cubisim. It was shown at the University Heights Arts Open in 2007. People were asked to choose and draw an organism at the table, then dive into the pond and tape it to the back wall.

Catscratch, San Diego, 2008

This piece was created for the San Diego Science Festival. The face painting was a composition of flesh tones and we mixed real human hair into the paint. Three blood red lines slashed across the painting and acted as a door. I stood in front and explained that you are the Bartonella Bacteria and that you are going to enter the wound to reproduce through binary fission. You’ll do this by blowing up 2 purple balloons and leaving them inside the body.

I gave them two balloons and in they went. Inside was knee deep in balloons. The soundtrack was of angrily skretching cats. Sometimes, I would send in people with white balloons and ask them to pop a bunch of bacteria balloons. At other times, I would go inside do a fast mini-lecture that would conclude in a balloon fight between white blood cells & bacteria.

Thousands of people came through while at the festival. The organization BioEASI largely facilitated this piece. Through the maddness, I never took a single photo. This documentation was done later at a Julian Charter School festival.

The End of the Rainbow, Redding, Nor Cal, 2009

The End of the Rainbow played with light waves and the electromagnetic spectrum. I actually tried to ride my bike to the end of the rainbow as a kid, so this was therapeutic. In this piece you reach the end of the rainbow and stand in the different colors.

It had two doors at either end of the hall. They were painted by a group of local teens. At the entrance was a small pot of pennies with instructions to make a wish and throw in a coin. I had installed a sensor device, so the coin would turn on the rainbow lights. Young children painted monochromatic pictures for the interior.

This was shown at the Shasta County Arts Council in Redding of Northern California. It was shown in conjunction with Van Gogh’s Ear. I collaborated with David Lipson on Van Gogh’s Ear and he helped me greatly with the installation of the rainbow piece. These pictures were taken during construction. Later, we put in a black ceiling, but never got a photo.

Van Gogh's Ear, Redding, Nor Cal, 2009

This one played with the idea of sound waves and the anatomy of the human ear. The idea was that you were a sound wave. You were the last sound wave to enter Van Gogh’s ear before he cut it off.

I collaborated with David Lipson to develop and install this piece in the Shasta County Arts Council building. The interior architecture was based on the anatomy of the human ear. It was lined with Van Goghesque murals and real sun flowers. From the ceiling hung a series of wind chimes that rang in a tonal graduation. They were representative of the cilia inside the ear. Anytime one was rang by a passing sound wave (audience) then lights would flash symbolic of brain synapses firing. A huge ear drum was installed in the center of the spiral, it would flash when played.

Wormhole, San Diego, 2009

This piece played with the ideas of the space/time continuum and how time might change in an area of extreme gravity like a black hole. It also toyed with where in the universe we might expect to find life.

I worked with my biology, astronomy & fine art classes to put it together. It had a great soundtrack of clocks ticking that would warp in crazy ways. The life cycle of a "Supergiant" star was painted on one wall, along with the different types of galaxies. Strings of tiny white Christmas lights shined overhead as stars, dozens of clocks were increasingly abstracted and lightshift was shown through layers of red, blue & purple cellophane.

It was shared at the 2009 San Diego Science Festival, where an unstopping flow of humans poured through it and then many did the science based art project with BioEASI at the installation's exit. The organization BioEASI largely facilitated this piece.

Attitude Determines Altitude, San Diego, 2010

I worked with my art classes to do this one. They came up with Attitude Determines Altitude as a theme. This piece played with the idea of altitude as a metaphor for success and the idea that people’s attitude could be symbolized by flight.

Buoyancy & density became metaphors for positive & negative attitude, habits & actions.

A chain circle in the middle was an anchor, while a set of balloons were inspirations. People were asked to write things that inspire them onto the balloons. Students wrote things that held them back in life on the floor. The sound track was of all different birds and wind blowing.

It was shown at the 2010 University Heights Arts Open, where the wind was blowing heavily. The interior was made largely from drawings and seemed to breathe with a life of its own.