WORK IN PROGRESS

PICKING UP THE PIECES

Created in collaboration with ceramic artist Mariana Rodriguez Pardy and made possible by a 2020

ArtsGreensboro's Artist Support Grant 

35"+ High  x 65+"  Wide
Ceramic Mosaic Mural

With rectangles in two color families representing  windows to our increasingly isolated lifes,  this piece attempts to express the "boxed-in" sensation of the pandemic years while also suggesting that harmony can be achieved despite isolation and polarization along ideological and political faultlines by understanding them as complementary rather than oppositional

 In color theory,  opposite colors are also called complementary colors. When combined, they can either gradually lose vibrancy until they cancel each other out (producing black), or increase each other's vibrancy if viewed side-by-side, respecting boundaries. In a visual metaphor of this phenomenon, we seek to illustrate that the ideo-political gap  (represented by the two opposite-color areas) can be closed by recognizing  differences as complementary rather than adversary within the social mosaic. By introducing complementary color accents (opposite ideologies) within each area we add interest and nuance to what would otherwise be two dull blocks of monochromatic rectangles. 

The piece can be displayed as a whole, with both areas interlocking,  or as two separate elements at variable distance from each other.