After completing Planting Text for Future Inspiration, I felt compelled to move forward with my art experiments. In my previous experience, art making had always maintained a strict compliance to rules and formal technique. However, once I began to define my own boundaries, the work became much more enjoyable.
Whereas my first project made use of dirt and earth, I wanted my next work to expand upward into celestial space. Also, I wanted to transform my medium from textual to speech-based investigations. The Sky Is My Canvas is an exploration of open space, ephemerality and light.
I began by inviting viewers to a predetermined exhibition space. 500 business cards were printed and distributed at various locations around town. Based on crude calculations, I estimated that the project would attract a 2% turnout. This estimate would involve the participation of a minimum of ten spectators.
I arrived at the space around 3:30pm. For approximately 20 minutes, I studied the subtle qualities of the atmosphere. It was during this rehearsal that I composed the principal structure of the work. The performance was influenced by my personal evaluation of four celestial properties: sky, light, color, sound. I began with a five minute statement about “sky”.
Upon concluding my statement, I continued by analyzing the observable qualities of light, color and sound. After completing all of my descriptions, I shook hands with each of the participants and thanked them for attending. Three people attended the exhibition. This included one patron who was looking for the Donut shop, but was kind enough to stay for the performance. Throughout 2001, I repeated this performance eleven additional times.
An example of my description was transcribed from an audio recording and
is reproduced in the following passage:
“Welcome to The Sky is My Canvas. Over the next 20 minutes,
I will compose a spontaneous tapestry of the following topics: Sky, Light, Color and Sound.
Each description will last five minutes. Thank you for attending this performance and supporting my work.
I will begin.
(Tony takes two deep breaths)
Sky! Such a simple topic to speak about. Wider and deeper than the oceans.
Overwhelming! It covers the earth with an umbrella of atmosphere.
In order to create a work titled The Sky is My Canvas,
I must first identify, stretch and build the canvas upon which the work will be composed.
There is no doubt that the sky is the largest of all canvases.
The large-scale works of the Old Masters will never match the scale of the canvas that I am about to compose.
It is the infinite quality of the sky upon which I will make my first mark.
My first thought, yes, the first thought. My thoughts revert to a comparison
between the sky and my passion for making art.
The simplest way that I can express this thought is by stating
- the sky is endless as my art making is endless – my art making is endless as the sky is endless.
Sky! Art! Endless! Endless! Art! Sky! Endless! Endless! Eternally endless.
Like a mantra or a prayer, yes, similar to a koan.
During this performance, I will meditate upon this celestial surface and
describe the brush strokes that are so obvious to my eyes.
My passion for making art can only be matched by contemplating the depths of the heavens
that are suspended above.
Through my verbal discourse, I will make broad conceptual marks upon those celestial plains.
Yes! Yes! YES!”