Palette, 2018
Graphite, paint, salt crystals, and resin on MDF board
This piece is inspired by David Burdeny’s photography series named Salt which depict rich vibrantly colored salt ponds. The salt ponds are unusual because they are colored with such an intense palette of pinks, oranges, and blues. Once I saw the first pictures, I was both perplexed and awed. This natural phenomenon was simply beautiful. The colors and patterns of these photographs intrigued me, and from there grew my fascination for the subject. After some research, I learned that the vibrant pigments of these salterns are produced by chemical reaction with the fauna and flora that live in the waters. David Burdeny’s photographs exquisitely capture the geometric patterns created by the juxtaposition of the salt ponds’ color variation. The resulting compositions appear abstract, as if someone drew a square encasing random diagonals and verticals crossing each other. So this is what I did. I did not replicate the exact composition of one of Burdeny’s photos, but created my own salt pond. I mixed my own colors following what I saw in the images, keeping with a warm palette, except a single tone of blue. To further establish the connection to salt, as well as emphasize the three dimensional feature of the subject, I sprinkled salt crystals in some of the spaces. To give the piece a glossy finish mimicking the reflective quality of water, I filled each shape with resin.
Read more about David Burdeny’s Salt series here. I was inspired by the following quote from the essay on the Salt series, “David Burdeny’s Salt photographs aim to be more evocative and exalted than pedestrian” [...] Burdeny has always had a deft appreciation for the artistic potential of pure space and how it can be purposefully structured to appeal to the senses. He has become a master of the photographic moment made in service of a sublime sensibility.”
Below are some pictures of the process as well as sketches.
These are some of David Burdeny’s photographs from which I took inspiration.
