Throughout my career, I have created works that represent metaphorical stopping places on the journey through life. Ship and Dock/Nights and Days or The Gazer continues this theme. With its two perched houses and a sky that changes from dawn to star-filled night, it is about time, the transformation of energy, and our final journey. The work marks the first time I incorporated video projection into my work. It is also the first time I married my three-dimensional installation work with my paintings on paper. The gouaches provided the imagery for the video projections. Inspired by my trips to Lake Superior, the work places the viewer in a darkened gallery under a night sky, looking up at what appears to be part of a giant ore dock, a familiar sight on the lake. Within the structure of columns, beams, stairways, and ladders sit two small houses. One house, lit from within, faces the viewer. The other, “The Gazer,” faces away from the viewer, toward the water, ship, and sky, watching as starry night changes to dawn and back to night again. See a video of the work here.

Photo Credit: Etienne Frossard