“Light Atlas” consists of 360 paintings, one painted every 25 miles along Cynthia Daignault’s 9,000 mile road trip across America in 2014. Her rigid formula of stopping and painting whenever the odometer hit 25 each day, rather than at the most scenic spots, meant she did not necessarily select 360 postcard-worthy snapshots of America. Instead, Daignault created a 360-degree view of the nation that is sometimes awkward, sometimes stunning, and surprisingly honest.
Together, they suggest the expansiveness of the American landscape through accumulated experiences rather than depending on a single image to stand for that idea.
Her paintings cover 3 gallery walls, in my collage, Jerry is viewing the center wall, with crops of the other two walls on either side it was a stunning masterpiece in my eyes.
@henrir I just Googled this, she’s from anew Zyork, she left Broomlyn and drove West, as close to Csnada as the roads would take her, down the West Coast, across the southern state’s to Florida and up the east coast to New York. Her last painting is the Manhattan skyline. She sketched the scene before her on linen, quick-drawing sketches, rolled them up and drove to the next stop. It took her two-three years to complete them in oils once she got home. It’s a 360 degree view of America. A book of all the paintings comes out this fall, I plan to order it!
@henrir One article said her trip took 6 months, another one said one year. I believe she actually drove 27 miles each time, around the circumference of America, to get the 360 view. Just an incredible undertaking!
This is so amazing Lou Ann, what a fantastic experience that must have been. Wonderful paintings to show the beauty of her country. I am sure the book must be amazing. Re typos, I so wish we had an edit button like everywhere else! I am constantly deleting my comments because of typos. I am too quick and sometimes don't read through what I wrote ;-)
@happypat The wall Jerry was viewing had 160 paintings, there were 100 additional paintings on the left and on the right, to total the 360 paintings. The first gallery in New York that displayed the canvases put them in 5 rows of 72 paintings each. I think the Crystal did a much better job the way they showed them!
This is so neat - hope Crystal is still holding this display two weeks from now when I go up there before my trip - amazing task she took on - and a really good collage for sharing. Sounds like you really enjoyed the trip.
@milaniet The Crystal is truly a great art museum. Honestly I just didn’t expect it to be so wonderful because it is not in a large city. I’m more than impressed with Alice Walton’s vision of creating a great American Art Museum in her home town. I honestly don’t know if the museum purchased “Light Atlas” for it’s permanent collection. For some reason I thought I read that, but it could have been for something else. Anyway, you are so fortunate to have this jewel of a museum fairly close to where you live! @gilbertwood@joemuli@365karly1@joansmor Thank you all for your comments, I appreciate each one of them!
September 4th, 2018
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