My first Public Art Commission - "Spinning Petals"

 "Spinning Petals" is the name of the art installation piece I created for the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden Backcountry Casitas program - a dispersed collection of interactive environments to engage child visitors the Garden and encourage imaginative play. Here's a video about it. 

My piece is a collection of six petal or leaf shaped hemp fabric sculptures over welded steel frames that spin when pushed or in the wind. The surface treatments are a virtual sampler of textile art mark making from painting, stamping, stencils, dye, applique, and embroidery. 

My goal was to create a vividly colorful space that would attract the viewers interest from a distance while highlighting the textures and images of nature reflecting the local flora. The patterns are either from oversized flower petals or life sized bay leaves, while one petal showcases natural dyes including avocado, and transfer images from flowers including nasturtium and milkweed. 

I chose hemp as a natural plant-based fabric that is both beautiful and hardy, and grown sustainably. Hemp is a high yield low-pesticide low-fertilizer crop that produces fiber for cloth and paper products. You can learn more about efforts to support the domestic hemp industry here. 

It was a long process from a site visit and discussions to understand what was needed, making a miniature to express my ideas, then the anxious time during the competitive selection process, the joy of being chosen, and then the intensive fabrication process as the first of four artists to install a casita this year. The rest will appear in September.

 I sourced, tested, experimented, and as often happens, simplified, and then found great solutions to my installation concerns. 

Then Jayn and I went to install along with the team from the Garden. There was plenty of curiosity from people passing by as we worked - which boded well. Two days later the work  was finished and available to visitors. 

My good friends Erika and Michael visited SBBG a couple of weeks later and came back with the happy report that children are playing in the installation. They use it as a dynamic backdrop for theater games (which is a nice irony for me as a set designer) as well as enjoying the spinning itself. 

The view from across the creek.

I hope it stands up to the action over time. The Casitas will be on view for two years.