Ninety One Kites in the Summa Healing Arts Collection For New Patient Tower

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Photography ©️Brad Feinknopf

click on image to enlarge (except mobile phones)

Photography ©️Brad Feinknopf

The new patient tower on the Summa Health System — Akron Campus designed by Hasenstab Architects features 90 unique pieces of art by 53 artists, all with Northeast Ohio ties.  I’m honored that my work “Ninety One Kites” is part of this collection.
From the Summa website:
“Summa Health promotes a healthcare environment that surrounds and connects patients, visitors and staff with the healing powers of the arts.”
Click here to learn more.

I’m honored to be a part of Summa Health’s new Healing Arts Collection for the new Patient Tower at the Akron campus. Special thank you to Meg Harris Stanton, curator – Summa Health Healing Arts Leadership Council, for selecting my work “Ninety One Kites” where it has been placed on the fifth floor across from the nurses station. I like it’s location. Not only do patients and visitors benefit from the arts in healthcare, staff especially does so. Also, a special thank you to Christine Havice, Chair, Summa Health Healing Arts Leadership Council. With her background as an arts educator in art history, journalist, curator and consultant, she researched and wrote about each artist, artwork and the artists process. With dedicated web page’s for each, it’s a great resource to view and study the collection. Below is excerpt of what she wrote on my page:

After viewing this print, you may also find his reflections helpful in negotiating the visual arts world of today, where both digital and the older “analogue” techniques co-exist and often, as here and in certain other works of art in the Summa Collection, interpenetrate in new and exciting ways.

Click here to learn more about the artwork “Ninety One Kites”.

Below are some great works in the collection.

New Summa Health Akron Campus New Patient Tower. Sculpture in foreground “Beacon of Well-Being” by Stephen Canneto , photo: summahealth.org
Diana Al-Hadid
A Way with Words, 2019
Materials: Polymer gypsum, fiberglass, steel, plaster, gold leaf, aluminum leaf, copper leaf, pigment, 160.5 x 96 x 5.5”.
From left: Cliff Deveny, M.D., Diana Al-Hadid and David Custodio, M.D., during Al-Hadid’s art installation in the new tower on the Summa Health System — Akron Campus
photo: summahealth.org
Shane Wynn
Pictured, from left:
Neema & Phul
Asha & Furaha
from the North Hill series, 2018
MaterialsColor digital print, 48 x 32”.
Location at Summa Health: New patient tower (141 N. Forge St.), hallway, second floor.
photo: summahealth.org
Marvin Jones
Untitled, undated
Materials: Mixed media monoprint  37 3/8 x 24 5/8”.
photo: summahealth.org

The Collection

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Wire – – Less

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Wire – – Less, 2019
UV cured inkjet on composite acrylic/aluminum panel
38 x 76 inches, edition of 3

In the past I’ve worked with circles organized as a matrix of dots but a regularized grid (x and y are equal) makes the axis of diagonal rows of dots at an angle of 45 degrees. So, I thought, what would happen if the grid was modified to make the axis at 60 degrees. I further thought, how could I create a further sense of movement. I substituted circles with ovals and rotated them along the long axis at a 30 degree angle giving them some tension.

For a little insight into my process, above is also sketch of mathematical layout in pixels I worked out first. This allows me to place guidelines in photoshop at 300 pixels vertically and 173 pixels horizontally giving me the accuracy I need to construct it.

For this first piece using this grid and rotated ovals, I spell out the words Wire Less. At first glance it could be read as wireless, a nod to the ubiquitousness of wireless technology. But another reading is Wire – Less; a message to metaphorically unplug once and a while.

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Art for the New LBGT Community Center of Greater Cleveland – Test Print

It’s been wonderful working on a commission for the LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland. Their new building, by Architecture firm WMF, with lead architect David Thal, in the Gordon Square Arts District in the Detroit Shoreway Neighborhood on Cleveland’s west side, is nearing completion. The building is modern, with its metal, glass and masonry planes. Yet, it also nods in respect to its neighbors, where it feels at home in its historic context.

I’m honored that my work will be part of the life of the building and the people of the LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland. I hope the joyfulness this artwork makes me feel, is also experienced by those who interact with it. As a gay man, together with my husband Bruce Baumwoll for 38 years, we’ve lived our life proud; fought for civil rights; cared for each other. So, it’s especially meaningful, to be in a place where the LGBT community is served.

About The Print

TEST PRINT

The type of print is UV cured inkjet on a composite aluminum panel called Dibond. A UV Curing Inkjet Printer cures the ink practically instantly as powerful UV light is applied while the ink is being laid down. The other feature will be that the print will be cut to shape on a CNC Router.

The artwork will be made of of 53 diamonds. The diamond shape was given the name Rhombus by the mathematician Euclid, hence the title of the work Fifty Three Rhombuses. A Rhombus is the geometric name in Euclidean Geometry which says it is a simple quadrilateral whose four sides all have the same length. The most famous Rhombus of all is perhaps the Baseball Diamond. Each Rhombus is divided up into four triangles, each of varying color. For the test print, I did 5 of these Rhombuses at full size (see image above). I used this test print, not only to check color, but also to test the accuracy of the cutting. To my delight, the CNC router cut it with exacting accuracy; important because of the exacting nature of the geometric forms. The overall size of the final print will be 118″wide x 56″high.

Doing the printing is Vista Color Imaging in Cleveland. They do great work. I Enjoy working with them and they enjoy working with artists. Thank you Kim and Scott and the rest of the team!

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