Additional Installation shots

 

Installation

Yesterday, the 11th of August, the three-panel work for the Hallie Ford Center was installed.  It took two long days to install after nearly six months of studio work.  I had the excellent assistance of artist Totem Shriver and art historian Brian Winkenweder.  Lighting on the second and third floors is not complete but the work is in place.  These are preliminary shots (Winkenweder).  More later when the rest of the lights are in.  The final panel was modified in the final days with the critical and practical assistance of many friends and, most importantly, my partner, María Isabel Piñas, soon to be "de Mills!!)

Rick Setterstein, Director of the Center (left) with Ron Mills.

Additional figures on the lobby panel (roughly 22' wide x 8.5')

There was some concern that the former two groups of figures suggested some estrangement (my words) that seemed best dealt with by adding additional figures to bridge across the divide, including some figures facing the viewer, which was missing.   I also tried harder to instill more glee and human happiness, shifting the emphasis somewhat from the natural world to human habitation and interaction.   I am still tinkering with the color balances and a few details, but suggest this as the solution to the thematic issue raised by one of the committee members.  

Nearing completion of third and final panel

Still tinkering with things but am feeling that this panel is about there....waiting for a little feedback from the committee...have made a few changes since these shots, mostly to the contours of the standing figures and a bit of work in the clouds.  My partner, Isabel, made great suggestions too, leading to substantive changes.  At about 22 feet wide, the piece is panoramic, expansive and saturated in color. 

Adding figures....much more to go...

Texture field layered, right side trees are incomplete.

Third Panel underway (this is the big one!)

Full composition at about 22' wide, plus.  Figures will be laid in soon.

Right side (incomplete)

Left side (incomplete)

Salmon

Thanks to great suggestions from the OSU and Oregon Arts Commission committee during their last studio visit, Sheri, Rich and Saralyn in attendance, the blue panel has undergone some subtle but important revisions just before coming off the work wall.  Most notably, the mural gained salmon, largely due to Saralyn's suggestion that the salmon is a spiritual symbol in the region, and that such imagery, however suggestive, might play well with the other imagery in the mural.  Once I started laying in salmon forms in the mural I found several places for them.    How many do you find?

Top and middle panels seen together...

Continuing refinements

Refinements on the atmosphere, canopy of the trees better integrated with the organic veils to the right.  A few new touches on the infants. 

Panel #3 is grounded on the floor of the studio and almost ready to go onto the work wall. 

More refinements.

Entire panel

Panel #2 continues to evolve

Fusion, Nascence

Getting close.  The eyes have been closed, happily in this case I think, the waves have radiated further and the trees are implicated in the cellularization of the whole.  
Here is a draft of the artist statement for signage at the mural site.  Thanks to Saralyn and of the OAC and Richard Settersten for wise suggestions and edits:

This three-part mural cycle is dedicated to the aims and aspirations of those who study and foster healthy children and families. In poetic form I have created imagery reflective of our collective need to explore and be mindful of the human condition.

This artwork was made possible by Oregon’s Percent for Art in Public Places program administered by the Oregon Arts Commission.

Possible titles for the three panels are:

Lobby: “Community Writ Large"
2nd Floor:  “Inheritance, Relationships, Legacy"
3rd Floor: “Nascence”

Nascence

Facial features are not final (look to serious and adult), lower sky layer is unfinished.  Trees will gain more definition and some small climbing figures.  The theme is individual growth, embedded in the larger field of the natural and biological world.