Benches On Parade - Part 1

Benches On Parade is a community art project in Rochester that involves a variety of artists painting fiberglass benches that will be displayed around the city this coming summer. I'm lucky enough to be one of the artists who gets to participate in this project! Most of the benches are being sponsored by companies in Rochester. I'm painting a bench for Harris RF Communications. These benches are quite large, measuring about 6 feet wide by 5 feet tall.



I'm storing the bench that I'm working on in Rochester, so on days that I'm not teaching I've been driving back to work on it. My bench is inspired by art deco design, with a slightly abstracted nod to Harris's ties to the global communications field.





So far I've mapped out most of the design on the bench. I've been taping off areas to paint in large blocks of color before I get into the details. Today I'm going to be filling in all of the blue areas of color and tomorrow I'll most likely really start getting into the details. A visit to the art store will probably be involved too - a bench this big requires a lot of acrylic paint!