I drove out to Palm Desert today to drop off the work for a group show at Modern Masters Fine Art. Rumor is I will be showing with Michael Sokolis and Trek Thunder Kelly -- both artists I admire -- among others. And the local art scene out there is quite happening... Even if I didn't love driving in the desert, it would be still worth the trip just to visit Imago Gallery, Buschlen-Mowatt, and Modern Masters Fine Art.
On the way back, I stopped by Pomona College for a reception for artist James Turrell, who has just completed Skyspace, a site-specific environment behind the Edmunds Building (at 6th and College Way, across 6th Street from the Coop). This is worth the drive out to Claremont to see, even with the inevitable traffic. During daylight hours, it resembles nothing more than a conservatively designed (I would even say "corporate") courtyard with a square hole in the canopy covering a reflecting pool. So don't go during the day. Go at twilight, when the lights gradually came on -- this has two magical effects. First, the color of the sky changes to the complement of the color projected on the canopy. This is not a subtle optical effect, or at least it wasn't tonight. You actually see the sky overhead change color, both through the hole and outside the canopy. The day was completely overcast, and I would have described the sky initially as a nearly neutral gray, perhaps just slightly on the blue side. As a violet light gradually illuminated the canopy, it had the effect of changing the appearance of the cloud cover to an intense metallic green. The second effect is a convincing optical illusion that the square, sharp-edged hole in the canopy has become a solid object hovering in space. It really looked like a square painting of the sky suspended from the actual sky (which was really the violet-colored canopy). After marveling at this for about 45 minutes, the lighting suddenly changed, becoming bluer and brighter, which made the sky suddenly darker and oranger. The effect was so dramatic and uncanny that the assembled crowd burst into spontaneous applause. As I watched, this hovering sky square went on to become a brilliant blue, and then a deep violet. It was mesmerizing... The artist was there, beaming like a proud parent (and looking like a sunburnt Santa). The color in these photos is pretty much exactly what I remember seeing. They were taken in the span of about 20 minutes, so you get an idea of the dramatic changes. But what's lost is the three-dimensional effect -- the floatiness of the skyhole, as it were. For that, you need to make a trip to Claremont, preferably right around twilight...
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