Artist re-creates natural light with artificial means

2003-06-27
San Antonio Express-News

Artist re-creates natural light with artificial means

By Dan R. Goddard
San Antonio Express-News

Web Posted : 07/27/2003 12:00 AM

Using a variety of stained-glass panels placed over the windows of his ArtPace studio, New York-based artist Spencer Finch has re-created the dim, milky light of a January afternoon in Paris. New York artist Spencer Finch (right) pauses in front of his new stained-glass installation at ArtPace in San Antonio.Carrie J. Jensen/Express-News
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Finch, one of three resident artists exhibiting in 'New Works: 03.2,' also uses 28 theatrical colored gels and fluorescent lighting to re-create the colors of a Texas sunset seen from ArtPace's roof on the summer solstice. 'Paris and Texas — it's hard to imagine two places more unalike,' Finch said. With a device called a 'Colorimeter,' made by Canon, Finch measures the quality and intensity of the colors making up the natural light in different places during his world travels. For the artist, it's an exercise in determining how we see what we see. He came to Texas after spending time in France, where he took a reading of the light coming through his Parisian hotel window at 4:15 p.m. Jan. 8. 'I like the idea of taking light apart and putting it back together in an artificial way,' Finch said. 'Light is always changing, and it affects what we see. In art school, I was interested in the impressionists, but it really wasn't cool to study Monet.' In one project, Finch traveled to Rouen, France, to study the cathedral painted by Claude Monet in a series of famous paintings that show the changing color of the light on the front of the cathedral. But the cathedral was closed for renovations and Finch had to settle for making a series of paintings that depicted the colors of various objects in his hotel room. When he realized that the changing light of day changed the 55 colors he tried to match, he wound up creating a triptych — combining impressionist techniques with conceptual experimentation. 'It takes a long time for me to get the colors just right,' Finch said. 'There's a lot of trial and error. For example, there's a lot of green in the Texas sunset, which you can't really see with the naked eye. But it's what makes the sunsets so spectacular. I know that sunset paintings are a cliché, but they're a cliché for a good reason.' Working with natural light, which contains the full spectrum of light, is much easier than working with fluorescent light because no man-made lighting source can actually reproduce the sun, Finch said. 'After playing around with gels, I finally fell into using stained glass to re-create the Parisian light,' Finch said. 'But I think there's a real tradition there that I've tapped into. This piece is specifically made for this site at ArtPace. I had to have a north light to do it, and after looking over the space, it just seemed like the natural thing to do.' Paris, which is farther north than New York City, has a lot of blue and purple in its winter light, Finch said. The Paris light is cool and murky, while the Texas sunset is blazingly bright. Many artists talk about choosing a place to live because of the quality of the light, and Finch's contrast between the light of Paris and Texas shows how this could affect someone both psychologically and physiologically. In the spirit of 'Pirates of the Caribbean,' Finch also created three maps — using invisible ink — revealing the locations of 3 ounces of gold that he buried in Uvalde, Bandera and Kerr counties. 'I just don't think there's enough buried treasure in the world,' Finch said. Finch paid $630 for each ounce of gold coins that he purchased from the U.S. Mint. Naturally, he hopes that he can sell his artwork — which looks like three blank pieces of paper — for more than he paid for the gold. A Global Positioning device told him the exact locations where he buried each ounce of gold. But to discover the coordinates, you would have to buy a map and then alter it by slightly singeing the paper to bring up the invisible writing and drawing done with a mixture of lemon juice and water. 'What's worth more: the gold or the art?' Finch said. 'That's the question.' dgoddard@express-news.net

07/27/2003

445 North Main Avenue San Antonio TX 78205 t 210 212 4900 f 210 212 4990 www.artpace.org