Sunday, January 6, 2013

“PAINTING IN THE SKY” PROVIDES MODERN DAY LIGHTHOUSE

New Installation by Noted Artist Spencer Finch

Thanks to a brand new art installation in downtown San Diego, anyone wanting a weather forecast can simply look up and get one! Artist Spencer Finch has just completed the “Weather Report” project at the Grande condominiums at Santa Fe Place.  As part of a Centre City Development Corporation requirement for public art at the Grande property, the project funded by Bosa Development California furthers the goals of implementing a public art vision for the Santa Fe Depot precinct.

New York artist Spencer Finch and his team of designers and fabricators have utilized the lighthouses on the top of the Grande North and Grande South towers at 1199 and 1205 Pacific Highway to create  “red sky” and “blue sky” lighting compositions foretelling the following day’s weather forecast.

For Spencer Finch, creating a modern day lighthouse on the Pacific is a way of using the Grande lighthouses to convey practical information signaling tomorrow’s weather.  Through abstract compositions of architectural forms and light, seen throughout downtown and beyond, the lighthouses create a link to San Diego’s maritime and seafaring tradition with a modern twist on the old saying “Red sky at night; sailors delight; red sky in the morning, sailors take warning.” 

Finch is hopeful that the San Diego community will use the lighthouses and his artwork for their own use and enjoyment for weather forecasting. “My vision was to create watercolors of the skies that would become a project of light and shadow in the sky at an enormous scale, thereby making the connection between the picture, the idea and the weather forecast.” 

The mechanics of the programming and technology are complicated but the fixtures are simple.  A daily RSS weather feed from Yahoo weather signals the representation of the following day’s weather.  This triggers the 150 fluorescent tubes and color gels in the lighthouses atop the Grande structures to signal Finch’s red or blue sunset pictures in the architecture of the buildings to make  the connection into indicators of weather information.

For more information about Spencer Finch go to www.spencerfinch.com





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