Decorative Arts Reinstallaton

In the fall of 2008, the Chipstone Foundation and the Milwaukee Art Museum did a complete overhaul of their American Collections Galleries.All the murals from 2001 are now gone, all the walls rearranged, and the galleries are transformed. The new galleries were designed by Michael Mikulay.

I was asked to do a number of really interesting things for the big reinstallation. One was a “Cabinet of Curiosities”, the painting of which  was inspired by the Renaissance display tradition of the same name.  All the new cabinetry was fabricated by the amazing Riverworks Design Studio, and they brought the pieces and parts to my studio (garage) in the summer of ’08.

Here is the finished installation:

And some in process shots:

I later applied gilded lettering to these pieces:

Another large scale mural was painted on the east wall of the same room. It is derived from another sort of curious idea from art history, the anamorphic image. In this case, a historical engraving was distorted, so that from one angle the image looks scrambled, but when viewed through a looking gladd off to one side, it comes back into focus.

This was a special challenge due to the ornate detail of enlarging an engraving to 20 feet in length. I had to work in the dark with the projector on, working directly with the paint. If I had tried to sketch with pencil first, I would have no idea what to do when the lights came on.

Here is the finished mural, looking head-on:

You’ll need to go to the museum and look through the glass yourself:

And here is an in process shot…

The final project for the exhibit was to “upholster” two foam and wire mannequins, which were to be clothed in costumes from Colonial Williamsburg. These mannequins were put into a case, as a sort of historic vignette of a man and woman flirting.

The purchased mannequins were sadly lacking in human qualities, and had to not only be upholstered in linen, but completely re-sculpted with stuffing. I had to purchase underwear to give them some form before the linen was sewn. I bought wig stands to cover for the heads, which also ended up needing to have noses sculpted onto them.  For the hands, I had to make a pair of gloves for each and stuff them.

Here is the finished vignette:

And some process shots:

Rohlfs

This was an easy and fun lead-in wall to paint, from the exhibit "The Artistic Furniture of Charles Rohlfs"…The scroll design was taken from one of his pieces, and I always enjoy doing large lettering.

A couple of in process shots:

J. Palin Thorley Show

For the 2008 Decorative Arts show, J. Palin Thorley: Modern and Traditional Design in Twentieth-Century Ceramics , I was asked to paint a lead-in wall re-creating a Thorley "cartoon" design whaich was featured in the show.

Here is the finished wall:

Here is my wall in progress:

   And here is the original painting I worked from:

Degas Sculptures

The Degas Sculptures show at MAM was also full of really fun projects for me. In addition to the lead-in wall, I was asked to paint his "Little Dancer" on the wall behind the piece, very large scale, and to marbleize columns and do stencil work for the interactive ballet studio room that was made for the exhibit.

And what was quite fun was that I painted the marble and stencil pieces at the warehouse studio of the Milwaukee Ballet. Being a former ballet teacher myself, this show was especially meaningful.

Tea Table Coffee Table

This show is a favorite of mine…probably because I enjoyed the painting so much. Tea Table Coffee Table was a show from 2005 at MAM. This one was again curated by Glenn Adamson.

I was asked to create wall murals behind 3 interior vignettes, as well as paint a faux-marble tiled floor underneath an 18th century tea table. Oh and I also did a very fun lead-in wall mural:

The three interiors:

The floor painting:

Byrdcliffe

Byrdcliffe: An American Arts and Crafts Colony was a show at the Milwaukee art Museum from 2004, a temporary exhibit in the Decorative Arts galleries.  I was asked to do two wall murals, one to be created from the carved design on a trunk designed by Zulma Steele in 1904, and one from her Dragonfly Wallpaper from the period.

Here is the trunk:

And here was my wall:

And the Dragonfly wallpaper as wall mural:

American Fancy

The blockbuster show from 2004 at the Milwaukee Art Museum, American Fancy: Exuberance in the Arts,1790-1840, was another Chipstone curated/Lou Storey  designed collaboration. I think there were more projects for me in this show than any other.

Lou asked if I had ever heard of "vinegar painting"…a technique developed in the 18th century to mimic wood grain. I had not, so I did a little research and taught myself. I ended up doing several pedestals for the show, and it became one of my favorite creative techniques.

There were also several large scale sculptures fabricated by artist Demetra Copoulos for the show. She built a 12 foot high replica of a clock that was in the show, and the word "FANCY", each letter a sculpture of its own, standing at least 12 feet high, which served as the intro wall for the exhibition.
My job with these pieces was surface decoration.

Here are a few  examples from the show:

 

The original clock:

A couple of vitrines featuring vinegar painting:

A "General Store" within the exhibition, with wall stenciling I created from historic designs:

Wall mural:

Brooks Stevens 2003

In 2003, I was asked to do a large number of murals and other things for the Milwaukee Art Museum’s major show called Industrial Strength Design: How Brooks Stevens Shaped Your World. Again, this show was designed by Lou Storey, and was curated by Glenn Adamson , an amazing guy who was then part of the Chipstone Foundation.

It was a fabulous show, and so much fun to work with Glenn and Lou again. Here are a few of the many wall paintings I did for that show:

A detail from the front wall, with hand lettering and the Brooks Stevens boomerang pattern painted behind it:

All the logos that Stevens designed, hand painted as a border across the top of the wall:

RESIDENTIAL WORK

Here is a small collection of more recent small scale residential work that I’ve done.

HALE MANU

In 2003, I was hired by my friend, Mary Kopitzke, to do various decorative elements for her new home in Kauai, Hawaii. Mary is the designer of this Arts & Crafts style house, set on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean. I was living in Milwaukee at the time, and had only been to the island once, when her idea of living there was only a dream. So all our communication was by phone.

I designed and fabricated two glass mosaic fireplace surrounds, one for the living room, one for the bedroom. For the living room, we chose warm brown and ochre tones, and I actually gilded the floral elements myself. Cutting the tiny shapes proved pretty hard on my hands…lots of cuts and waterlogged fingers…but it was worth it. The living room design was inspired by a fireplace designed by George Mann Niedeken.

And the bedroom was inspired by the Dard Hunter rose…

PARRISH DINING ROOM

Here I was asked to create a mural for a small Milwaukee bungalow dining room. The owner liked Maxfield Parrish a lot, so we chose this image from one of his paintings. The owner asked that I work it inside the framed areas in the room.

RUFUS PORTER

Here is another dining room, belonging to a collector of early American art. He was a fan of the muralist Rufus Porter. This mural ran all the way around the quite large dining room, and here is one wall:

In the same house as the mural above, I was asked to paint a little “surprise” in the powder room medicine cabinet…meant to startle any snooping guests:

First Project with the Milwaukee Art Museum

Back in 2000, I was asked by exhibition designer, Lou Storey, to paint some murals for the new installation in the Decorative Arts wing of the Milwaukee Art Museum…which opened along with Calatrava addition to the Museum in 2001.

Here is a sampling of the wall murals from that installation.

 

 Mural and border created from a Greek amphora design:

A mural created from a period engraving:

This design was created from a vase painting:

 

Da Vinci inspired: