The development of “Coral Beliefs,” a near 85-foot long continuous work of art designed to fit the main gallery of the Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park & Museum, was a labor of love. Made over a period of many months, this piece was orchestrated to maximize the impact for viewers both close-up and far away from the piece. “Coral Beliefs” is composed of 25 individual panels that each measure 30 x 40 inches (except for the centerpiece, which is 30 x 45 inches) that will be installed ‘shoulder to shoulder’ with no spaces in between any of the panels. The notion is that the work is made to be in “around,” where each of the pieces flows into another and the first piece and last piece “connect” to each other.

Early work that eventually was integrated into “Coral Beliefs”

Before the notion of “Coral Beliefs” was born, I had made two panels, which were initially called “Water Tiger 1 & 2.” I utilized all sorts of mixed media in the creation of these works including paper, plastic, acrylic paint and mediums, oil and even watercolor. My goal was to create an abstract view of an undersea world that was fragile and magnificent.

Following these two pieces, I made two additional sets of mixed media on panel works — “Water Tiger 3 & 4” and “Spider-man 1 & 2.” I quickly saw that working with this wide spectrum of media on this surface offered infinite potential. In talking with an art colleague who has been inspirational in my development as an artist, Peter Hopkins, he suggested expanding this concept into a massive eco statement for my upcoming museum exhibition. As an internationally-recognized artist/curator and entrepreneur, Peter had created a monumental piece (but even taller) in around for an exhibition several years before.

“Water Tiger 3 & 4” went on to Venice for exhibition in 2022 during the Biennale and “Water Tiger 1 & 2” and “Spider-man 1 & 2” became the initial pieces of the 25-piece “Coral Beliefs.” Eventually turned horizontal and integrated into the larger piece, these pieces transcended from individual works to now being part of the Coral Belief’s story.

Day to day working on “Coral Beliefs”

Once the concept of creating a large-scale piece that would be hung around the perimeter of the main museum gallery was born, the work moved into high gear. Ordering materials and creating a 3D model of the space became top priorities. My fabulous studio associate, Simone Kurtz, during COVID-19 worked from home creating the 3D models. These became a staple in the development of the work. My goal was to create a piece that travels through all the colors in the rainbow to emulate the vibrant colors I have seen scuba diving over coral reefs around the world.

I worked on groups of panels at a time. This became physically demanding very quickly. I needed to install thick rubber mats on my concrete studio floor to ease the impact (on my joints) of the painting process. I also set up a hanging system in the corner of my studio, making it possible to view the work in three rows as it was coming together.

Jill working in her studio on “Coral Beliefs”

“Coral Beliefs” hanging vertically in Jill’s studio/gallery.

Nightly ritual in the creation process

At the end of each studio day (which went on for months), I developed a work flow that included documenting the development of each of the panels while simultaneously seeing how each of the pieces fit into the larger puzzle.

The process would begin with an i-phone photograph of each of the panels that I worked on that day. I edited each photo with Lightroom Classic and then uploaded the photo into InDesign for closer examination. I added the images to a rendering of the gallery and also to a “pairs” file that looked at groups of panels close-up to see if the transition from panel to panel was smooth. After all that, I printed and laminated the scaled images and put them into my 3D model to get a sense of the project’s overall perspective.

This process helped inform the next day’s studio activities and gave me a close up and far away sense as to the overall balance of the color and texture in the piece. My goal was to have a wide variety of textures, colors and shapes that worked as an overall artistic statement while simultaneously drawing folks in to enjoy the details.

InDesign rendering of the gallery was an important tool in the project’s development.

Once the piece was completed…

Photographing “Coral Beliefs” became not only a daily ritual to facilitate its creation, but also became critical to document the overall project. Jess Paternoster, my studio photographer, helped me capture “Coral Beliefs” in all its glory. She took individual thumbnail shots of each piece, the back for the signature, detailed shots of the texture and videos of each piece as well. We created a grid in InDesign which featured some of these images to showcase the depth of the project.

Panels 1 - 11 of “Coral Beliefs” - thumbnail image (left column) and close-ups of each of the panels.

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Today is a momentous day. All the paintings for the show have been loaded into a Sprinter and are enroute to the museum. Arriving tomorrow, the show will be installed in February in time for the VIP opening reception on February 23, 2023. I am very grateful to Bryan Knicely, the Executive Director of Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park & Museum for inviting me to showcase my work.

Please stay tuned for more updates as this show gets underway. Thanks so much for joining me on this journey!

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