Sometimes it’s nice to make art guided more by a slow beauty than by ideas. I recently made a studio artpiece that colors the space around it with beautiful shadows and reflections – and these change subtly throughout the day.
Notice how the shadow look different when the sun comes from a different angle.
This studio piece is meant to be placed in a south-facing window where it produces an intricate shadow that evolves thoughout the day.
The tree has tiny ‘leaves’ made from three types of dichroic glass attached to a metal armature shaped in the bonsai tradition. The three types of dichroic glass each transmit a different range of colors as the sun arcs overhead in the sky. By carefully arranging the leaves, I achieved a random look to the tree but the shadow of the tree changes its colors from spring to summer and finally to autumn colors as the sun moves from its morning to noon to evening position in the sky.
This was achieved by setting each of the different types of dichroic leaves to a different angle where it meets the branches of the tree. As the day moves from morning through evening, the shadow of this sculpture moves from spring through autumn colors.