FADED STAR | The Art of Michael Whelan

OTHER WORKS

Acrylic on Watercolor Board - 6" x 6"
1977

FADED STAR

Date

© 1977

Details

Acrylic on Watercolor Board

Size

6" x 6"

FADED STAR

A low angle, slightly tilted perspective looking up an immense chamber. The walls of segmented concrete are dilapidated and filthy. As light shines down into the cavernous space, a solitary figure leaps off his makeshift perch into open air with arms spread wide. Below, a flock of doves stirs with the commotion, fluttering up through the chamber.

A smooth stone facade, reminiscent of a gravestone, occupies the entire foreground of the painting. A square window set into the top center offers a vision of a vibrant blue wave cresting at enormous height and about to crash down. A diagonal shadow cuts across the face of the stone. Three embossed ridges border each side of the stone. Green grass can barely be seen at its base.

Against the paneled concrete wall of a massive chamber, a stone sphere hovers as if by magic. The outer surface is polished and patterned with overlapping 5-pointed stars. Light from a simple bulb hanging inside fills the sphere with warm light. At the edge of a circular opening, a little girl in pink dress sits reading with her feet and the blanket beneath her dangling unsupported. The metal frames that structure the concrete wall have thoroughly rusted. Much of the stone is dingy and cracked. Eroding at the top of the chamber, the wall gives way to a view of a sliver of crescent moon in the blue night sky.

Four weathered pillars of concrete stand at water's edge. The receding tide deposits a meandering line of detritus on the wet sand.

A young man stands on an outcrop of rebar in the space between two massive stone walls. In one hand he struggles with a lamp hanging on a long heavy chain while his other grips a rusted piece of metal anchored to the stone facade. Up high and barely visible is a thin line of hazy daylight that he can't see because he's looking down.

In a bird's eye view of a massive stepped wall, a solitary figure crouches on the bottom tier looking up, awed by a view of concrete climbing as far as he can see. The facade shows intricate patterns, like many derelict building merged together. A trapezoid of filtered light stretches along the side wall. The muted tones, just gray and rust with a slight hint of blue, combine with dusty quality to give the painting an oppressive atmosphere.

A woman with tentative footing stands in a tetrahedral crevice cut into the face of an enormous stone wall. With no good handhold, she extends to glance out at a track of rust stains in the textured concrete. Well out of arm's reach, the vertical lines run parallel, marked with empty pairs of holes and the occasion—often broken—rung made of bent rebar. A similar pattern, evidence of a ladder that used to run up the wall, extends down from where she stands, but from her vantage she doesn't see it. She wears a white shawl-like shift trimmed in blue that hangs to knee length on the front and down to her heels in the back. Cut in a triangular pattern, it is an obvious inversion of the nook she inhabits.

freefall

causeway

glimpse

climber

Water pours through four vertical channels cut into the face of a wide stone wall. Beyond, the clear blue ocean gives way to dreary gray sky.

Tiny figures, each carrying a light, walk a path cut into the face of an enormous textured stone facade. The path angles angles down before opening to a round circuit where people seem to be defying gravity as they walk the curve even upside down. The channel in the stone resembles the number 9 lying face up. A hole at the center of the loop exposes the sky outside. A boy points his light up toward it but there is no apparent path there.

Painting description: A boy in a white shirt, olive shorts, and black sneakers stands tip toed on electrical conduit mounted along a buttressed barricade. With hands set on the top edge of the barrier, he stares out at crescent moon visible between wispy clouds in a dusky blue and orange sky. Paint on the panels of the barricade alternates between red and white, heavily weathered to reveal rough metal texture. Each panel carries an orange sign labeled A13 through A17 running from right to left. A “NO TRESPASSING” sign on the upper right of the barrier hangs near a 5-pointed star rendered in fading white paint. At the center of the barricade, an exit sign sits on a pole bent at its base. The arrow atop is angled up at a 45°. Four yellow stanchions striped in black, a single traffic cone, and the yellow lines of parking spaces run along an angle at the lower edge of the painting.

A view through the ruins of an urban landscape. A cracked concrete wall with rusty rebar showing through the cracked surface, obscures the view from the left. Shadows draw lines at a sharp angle. On the right, tall concrete towers tilt inward, threatening to fall. In the narrow gap between, a woman sits hugging her knees atop a broken concrete column. Her white robes spill over the edge of her narrow perch. In the immediate foreground, a key hangs looped on a short outcrop of rebar.

seawall

A young girl in a fancy dress with puffy sleeves and lace trim stands in fronts of a wall built of irregular-shaped stone. Thickly framed, a portal in the shape of a five-pointed star is set in the stone. By one point of the star, she swings open the plate that usually covers the view out. With a knowing glance, she turns brown eyes back to the viewer. At her side, held in her other hand, a red glass heart dangles from the tip of her index finger by a looped ribbon.

scale

A series of switchbacks lead up a weathered concrete edifice. Walls of rough textured stone are rusted in places and worn throughout the cavernous space. Canvas and rope are strung at random. The walls begin to erode several levels up, offering a glimpse of starry blue sky. Dim yellow lights hang sparsely along the walls. In minute detail, a figure can be seen laboring up the first long ramp. He carries a staff with a light at its curling end.

silvertide

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