Color Falls was really a fun project.  Because it was one of those that accumulate over time, the pieces, so it becomes visible as you’re working on it.  The first days, it’s like, what are those people doing? Nobody even cares. A little string over there, and more string…  But at some point there’s so many strings that people start getting interested. And they stop and they talk and you’re up on the wall and they’re down there, and they’re just interested, and it just gains more and more color, so it was really fun.

As far as the location itself, I don’t remember now exactly, but it’s always been kind of a site where I know there have been some civil rights protests.  It’s got some history behind it. So that was part of it. And it was going through a little bit of a renaissance, the park.  There was some other art, there was some artistic playground equipment that had been placed there, it was kind of a revitalized park. It’s a major part of downtown. So it was an apt place.  But the idea was really to take some existing thing and draw attention to it.

And it was also cool, too, because you know it really literally is in the middle of downtown.  There are very tall buildings right there next to it. And so I did get some comments from people who worked up, high up in these buildings, that would remark that they could see it from their windows and watch it progress, just from the top. And I always wanted to get up there but I didn’t know how to do it.  That was in the days before drones were everywhere.

It was a learning experience. I guess in a way future projects that were like that–temporary, time limited, big, on site–they had the same issues, the same challenges as far as trying to anticipate the quantity of materials and the time it would take.  It’s like a fine balance. Same things, like San Diego, same thing. The bridge, same thing. Spring Crossing, same thing. Same things that make it thrilling. Is it going to get vandalized? Is there enough material? Because at that point you can’t just go buy more material.  You have the material that you have. It’s special material, so to order it would take a month. So you err on the side of getting too much material–you think. That’s why I have a garage full of materials!

Atlanta, color falls, installation