Mixed Media

For this piece, I assembled a group of children ranging in age from 3 to 10 years old. I gave each of them a flat plane and instructed them in techniques of spontaneous design (see images for some examples) none of which required more than 30 minutes to master. I then cut the individual palettes into smaller pieces of varying shapes and sizes and reassembled them in the mosaic-like relief shown in the image of the work in progress entitled, Commissioner's Plan According to the Law of Moses. Depending upon the number of participants as well as the available space, the possible outcomes are infinite. With no prior knowledge of the outcome of their efforts my group produced an exceptional product. From the ethereal point of view, this piece proves that an individual has no realization of the impact of his/her participation in the grand scheme of life. If a butterfly flaps his wings, it is a significant event in all of life. Synergy is alive and well, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Robert Moses served as the tyrannical Commissioner of Public Works for the city of New York through 5 decades. His ambition was to dismantle the Commissioner's Plan, established by DeWitt Clinton in the early 19th century, to force working class people off of the island of Manhattan and into the surrounding boroughs. To achieve this goal, Moses had to eliminate the democratically established numeric grid of streets and avenues and replace it with highways and bridges. Much of my work is quite urban in nature. This piece is an abstract representation of the disconnected neighborhoods and isolated communities following the execution of the Law of Moses.