The stairwell project

Over the summer I worked with art consultant Hilary DePolo on a proposal to use enlargements of my collages to enliven the interior stairwell of a new office building adjacent to Denver's Union Station.

The concept was to encourage people to use the stairs by creating a welcoming and visually stimulating environment. In addition, another artist would add a motion-activated sound installation to further animate the space.

I worked with the building plans to develop a scale for the original collages that I felt would translate when enlarged and applied to an entire landing wall. The image needed to be clear from a distance and interesting graphically as a viewer climbed closer. Because I am working with images culled from magazines, printed with a dot pattern, it was critical to make some samples of what the enlargement might be like.

We eventually settled on an enlargement of approximately 900%. The lowest level had a low floor-to-ceiling height, the top level had a tall floor-to-ceiling height, and the remaining three floors had the same proportions. The original collages were done on boards that reflected those proportions. Each original panel was one foot wide but the heights would vary to accommodate the floor-to-ceiling height differences.

Intimate to HUGE: scaled-up collage

After the commission was approved, the original collage pieces were scanned at high resolution by Nocerino Editions. The team there works with the scan and software to adjust the colors so they will print as closely as possible to the original. This is no easy feat because of all the different types of paper I've used and the underlying 4-color rosette dot pattern from printing processes. I appreciate their perfectionism!This photo shows the collages in a color corrected light booth awaiting approval. The original pieces (stacked, at right) are compared to samples, printed out on canvas swatches (left) to test colors. Once color was approved, the image was printed at 300% onto canvas, then stretched and varnished.I picked the panels up earlier this week and took them to the framer for final finishing. Below is an image of the pieces laid out on the table at Metropolitan Frame Company, all nine feet of them. Note the hand in the photo to see scale... I had to take this photo from a stepladder! The images look great and I hope the effect will amazing once it's hung.Since this will be displayed in a public space, the three pieces are being set into one very large frame to give them even more presence and keep the three pieces from getting out of alignment with each other.Installation is probably a month or so away but I'll eventually have photos of the piece in its final location to add to this saga.