Evolution at Work: Calder’s Spirit Lives On

In the nineteen seventies I was contracted to design, develop and install custom art with my textiles and sculptures for corporate public spaces. I created my art forms to integrate the architecture of these spaces with the experience of the people who occupied them. So I called this kind of art " Integrative Art ".

Then I saw the Calder Retrospective exhibit at the Whitney Museum. There, in a moment, my life and my perception of space changed dramatically. It was a visceral experience. My heart, mind and body experienced a huge gasp, in which all of Calder’s unique perceptions of space filled my spirit. I understood how, no matter how large or small, his VISION engaged the human spirit. His art invited people to experience themselves in space, in relationship to his moving wire figures, mobile components, and monumental structures. He asks us to participate through our imagination and feel delighted by their whimsey. He never left us behind as he surged to ever greater heights with his work and perceptions of space. He touched my soul. My art changed and continues to do so carrying the spirit of this great artist.

In the eighties and nineties interior public spaces grew even larger in scale. In Philadelphia, I was commissioned to create a welcoming experience for the Commuter Rail Entry in Gallery At Market East. This city-block long, 7 story high work, inspired by Calder, needed to extend beyond a single point suspension. Space itself became the center core of what became known as an Aerial Sculpture. These relating components are individually suspended and collaged throughout the whole space, moving with the air currents, all playing in relationships of colors, shapes, and shadows.

I felt that my process was an evolution or continuation of Alexander Calder’s VISION and now, with my company, Colors In Motion®, I work with a creative team to create Audio Visual Art for large scale video platforms. Our mission is to bring beauty and centered calm to people in public spaces. We engage the human spirit by beautifully and slowly merging the original forms of Visual Art, Music, Dance, and Poetry composited together, and experienced from monumental digital screens.

This September, over thirty five years after the Whitney show, when I walked through the current Peabody Essex Museum's Calder exhibit, I felt that same connection with “my old friend” and mentor, to whom I pay homage now; Calder and his huge spirit.

The Peabody Essex Museum did a masterful job of creating an exhibition space that asks the viewer to slow down and witness the subtle movements of Calder's components of shape, shadow and color in space. I imagine that, if he were alive today, he would also be evolving through the wonders of audio visual art that we have the capacity to create today. Architecturally the shape of our future environments can come alive with original art emanating from any and all surfaces. Just as Calder leaped from his circus miniatures to his large scaled Mobiles and Stabiles, we in the 21st Century, with the innovations in technologies, can transform indoor and outdoor spaces yet again as “Calder's Spirit Lives On”.