Climate Turner, 2016. Digital photocollage (sketch) using trash, smog, wires, electronic components and the composition of J. W. Turner's painting "Peace - Burial at Sea," from 1842.
open studio: a beautiful future /
A beautiful future. Digital photo collage (sketch) for landscape electronics. Kelly Heaton, 2016
open studio: bad circuit /
Bad circuit, 2016. Watercolor, gouache and graphite on paper. Kelly Heaton
One of many studies for larger works combining electronic components and nature in the Anthropocene era.
open studio: a voice crying in the wilderness /
A voice crying in the wilderness. Digital photo collage (sketch), 2016. Kelly Heaton
Human population is skyrocketing along with our impact on planet earth: smog, loss of natural habitat, loss of diversity, global spread of invasive pests, deforestation, exploitation of natural resources, landfills, toxic waste, garbage in the ocean, death of coral reefs, pesticides everywhere, crowded cities, escalating competition for resources, drought, soil erosion, ... the list goes on. Because our numbers are so many, even small or unintended actions add up to a big problem: eating seafood or beef, burning wood or coal, drinking bottled water, disposable packaging, pissing medication into the water supply, driving a car, and so on. A manmade solution to population growth is not obvious, which is to say, no ethical solution has materialized. It appears that we are on a collision-course with nature's solution to excessive population: death by bottleneck. Surely there is an alternative. Surely we can all agree to be a little more reasonable, if that means to save our kind? Or are our natural instincts to reproduce, and to compete for resources, so strong that we cannot save ourselves?
open studio: the astable multivibrator as public art /
I like the form and function of electronics enlarged to the scale of public art. Here's a sketch for an astable multivibrator (a type of circuit) installed on the sidewalk near the New York Stock Exchange.
open studio: peace on earth /
Peace on Earth, goodwill to all. Digital photo. Kelly Heaton, 2015
I'll be on vacation until the first week of January, 2016. Happy holidays!
open studio: harbingers /
Harbingers, 2015. Digital photo-collage. Kelly Heaton
Consumerism, pollution, dependence on fossil fuels, e-waste, climate change, off-shore garbage disposal, inequity of access to Earth's basic natural resources, manmade illness, children raised in ecological poverty, living conditions for future earthlings, the heaven that is natural Earth ...
open studio: a young woman with her phone /
A young woman with her phone. Digital photo collage. Kelly Heaton, 2015
An artifact of the Anthropocene era: a young woman with her phone. Artists used to sculpt marble statues from a live model, often a woman of ill repute. Now, artists model statues in Photoshop using pictures of women who post themselves on the Internet. For the record, I made my "statue" from a composite of several women, so it does not represent a real person.