MAY 16, 1975
12" x 12" x 5"
This is my painting/construction/sculpture of the image on the back cover of the KISS ALIVE! album. The photograph was taken on May 16, 1975 at Detroit's Cobo Hall during KISS' Dressed To Kill tour. I spent many hours as a youth staring at this image among many other LP's. Back when it was fun to look at album artwork and wonder about things. There was something about the vinyl record format, the size, the feel of a double record, the artwork seemed more important back then. In staring at this photo I often wondered what it would be like to be there, to be present for what is now an iconic moment in Detroit's musical history.
My piece is trying to offer that chance, to be able to stick your face in the piece and simulate an experience that is only a moment in time. The lyric, "I Want To Rock And Roll All Night And Party Every Day", while maybe not a healthy way to live your life, it's at least a plan, an ethos. The fact that this photo was taken so long ago, has given me a lot of time for reflection, I myself have done a lot of meandering in life, and often wished I had a life plan in place. These burnouts holding the sign have at times had life figured out in ways that I had not. I heard that KISS sends a limo for them whenever they play in town. Thats a lot of fame and perks that resulted from a couple of pot smokers drawing and painting on a piece of paper. The power of art.
I designed the form in Autodesk Inventor Professional, a 3-d software program. I based it on a piece I had made a few years earlier that is made from a Chinese food take-out container.
I cut the piece using a CNC router out of a slab of mdf that I glued up. I finished it off with some cuts on a table saw. It is primed and painted and then clear-coated with a high gloss auto finish. All of this was done before I started painting the image inside. It's a bit like making the frame before you paint the picture.
This piece is being shown currently through September 12, 2015 at Inner State gallery in Detroit on Gratiot Ave. Unfortunately for anyone with purchasing on their mind, the piece was snapped up pretty quickly before the show even opened. Good news for me.
My piece is trying to offer that chance, to be able to stick your face in the piece and simulate an experience that is only a moment in time. The lyric, "I Want To Rock And Roll All Night And Party Every Day", while maybe not a healthy way to live your life, it's at least a plan, an ethos. The fact that this photo was taken so long ago, has given me a lot of time for reflection, I myself have done a lot of meandering in life, and often wished I had a life plan in place. These burnouts holding the sign have at times had life figured out in ways that I had not. I heard that KISS sends a limo for them whenever they play in town. Thats a lot of fame and perks that resulted from a couple of pot smokers drawing and painting on a piece of paper. The power of art.
I designed the form in Autodesk Inventor Professional, a 3-d software program. I based it on a piece I had made a few years earlier that is made from a Chinese food take-out container.
I cut the piece using a CNC router out of a slab of mdf that I glued up. I finished it off with some cuts on a table saw. It is primed and painted and then clear-coated with a high gloss auto finish. All of this was done before I started painting the image inside. It's a bit like making the frame before you paint the picture.
This piece is being shown currently through September 12, 2015 at Inner State gallery in Detroit on Gratiot Ave. Unfortunately for anyone with purchasing on their mind, the piece was snapped up pretty quickly before the show even opened. Good news for me.
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