A Third Art Installation In My Home
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Those of you who follow my blogs will have read my prior posts about two space-themed art installations in my home. They are painted around the 120 million year old granite boulders this house is built on. Both are by contemporary artist Sheena Rae Dowling. The other weekend I was talking to Sheena's sister Briana, who mentioned that her favorite work is a smaller one I also had done recently. I realized I had not written about it – so here it is.
This one came about because I had a little hatchway installed in an exterior wall in my back office between some bookshelves. It served no purpose other than a check to see if the cinder block wall behind was damp, as it is below ground at that point and I had some concerns. It turned out to be bone dry; so now I had a hatch that served no purpose.
I talked ideas with Sheena, who works with fabrics as much as with paint. She created an installation in the hatch where – in textiles – the work evokes the inner workings of the house, almost as if it is a biological/machine organism. It frames a view into infinity – in paint – as if opening and closing the hatchway is a portal to a different universe.
The hatch can be opened and closed, making this an intriguing little surprise among the bookshelves for house visitors. With this third piece I feel like the art installations in the house are complete. There is, however, another secret area under the main stairs, so – who knows...
If you are on TikTok, here is a video of the hatch being opened...
