Painting the “disco ball” started as a response to the isolation of the pandemic. Living, teaching, and working on my studio practice in the same small room was becoming routine and claustrophobic.  Every day, I found myself looking forward to ‘disco hour’ when the sun would shine in and activate the many disco balls I have hanging in my windows.

 

This work became about the organization—or rather, disorganization—of the colored light reflecting off of the mirrored pieces. Through these images, the stale space of the studio is refreshed with ever-changing variations of color and light. In this way, the playful relationship of color, light and texture invigorates the social and physical spaces that the pandemic has denied us, merging my aesthetic concerns with my emotional ones.

 

Disco ball mirror, usually cut into small rectangles, has rigid and exact edges, and I can’t help but think of the natural planar grid that develops on the surface through these borders. Even though these boundaries are both physical and strict, the same disco ball can become quite fauvist depending on its surrounding environment. The reflected light and color can be constantly in flux, even wild at times, changing with the location, time of day, and the object’s movement. The color that surrounds the disco ball has the potential to influence the mood of the grid that lays beneath, which can be seen as a reflection of the ever-changing world around us.