The second commission for the Franklin Marriott Hotel and Conference Center shipped to Atlanta recently. The Soho Myriad framers are hard at work constructing box frames before sending the work on to Nashville for final installation.
Kelly M. O'Brien, Playing With Fire No. 16 - 20, work in progress. Paper, gold leaf, flame. Dimensions variable. ©2015.
These pieces are different from the first commission of two circular forms. For this second project, the client wanted straight, angled pieces to hang as a group of five—an interesting challenge because the individual pieces have to relate to one another once they are installed on a large wall. Wide matting is being added to expand the framed sizes. This will further change the relationship of the pieces to one another, so I had to allow for "give" in the design.
Kelly M. O'Brien, Playing With Fire No. 17 - 20, work in progress. Paper, gold leaf, flame. Dimensions variable. ©2015.
The individual pieces range from 20”h x 27.5”w (38”h x 46”w framed) to 24h" x 30w" (46”h x 57”w framed), and are ten layers deep. So the finished box frames are approximately 4" deep.
Kelly M. O'Brien, Playing With Fire No. 19, work in progress. Paper, gold leaf, flame. 30 x 24 inches. ©2015.
Speaking of framing, it's a key part of the process. I wanted a more open feel to the work, so the layers progress large to small, bottom to top. This makes for very tricky work to stabilize and mask the edges for a clean look. I'm grateful that Andrea Emmons and her framing team at Soho Myriad have the experience and confidence to handle this.
When I get images of the framed, hung work installed on location, I'll share them here.