6.09.2012

Surface No.1: 578 Objects

1995/2000


This one got started while I was living in San Francisco. I was running my frame shop on Sutter St. and saving all the mat blades I had used for customer work. Once I had accrued enough, I threw them in a bleach solution and let them rust. Then I air-dried them on the window sill for a few days, coated them with urethane and laid them out on my canvas with felt risers for a dimensional, drop-shadow effect. As you can see, I used nothing to measure or regulate the position of the blades and so they go quite skew in the middle, an accident I always loved. Any pigment on the canvas (over gatorboard)is gesso and I left the edges raw for a long while but then when I got to St. Louis I splashed beeswax on them. Refinished and repaired the outer frame as well. Also made a good effort of cleaning and resurfacing the blades (the thing was five years old by then) but mostly succeeded in cutting up my fingers pretty good, so I refinished the blades in my own blood. The piece finally, after showing in San Francisco, Los Angeles and St. Louis, sold to real estate developer Robert Wood and hangs in his offices to this day.


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