12 curves, 12 shades of blue

DNA of Blue started with 12 curves, an homage to the sinuous double helix of a DNA strand, each one painted in a different vibrant shade of blue.

The “Genome Project” had taken place in 2001, rushing to map all the genes in human DNA to establish the building blocks of Life each person is born with.  The double helix strand was incorporated into my painting as a way to explore this new microcosm of inner life. 

Breaking the Code, 2001, 22" x 30", watercolor on paper

What this massive scientific effort didn't explore was much broader and messier, our interactions with the daily experience of life.  This is the realm of Art, I thought. Could an art project have the same unifying scope by mapping our experiences of life around us? After all, those experiences build the self that we become.

I cut out the 12 curves to use as a model for a single fixed sculpture, but kept rearranging the 12 elements and couldn’t’ stop. It was impossible to choose one right arrangement. 

I tried it on the floor, then the table. Soon friends added theirs and I watched the several minutes of concentrated joy that went in to making each design. Stringing the designs together put all the work on an even plain and made something larger and more elemental. Based on that simple interaction, a participatory event took shape.

I tried adding magnets to the pieces so they'd be movable on a wall.
 Too much flash. 

What if an open-ended  design project mapped a single trait of human experience, say the experience of color. This map, or experience collection, could give us a new understanding of how one basic experience crosses cultural, language, religious, and national boundaries to unify us. It could show in one small way what it means to be human in a global age. Let’s call it the DNA of Blue.

The project germinated in my studio for months while I went on to other things.

                                                   Paradise with 47 Virgins, 2005; 1 cotton T-shirt, wire, velcro, 7’-6” x 7’-6”.