On Location (2005-2007)

On Location (2005-2007)

Throughout these works, Kushner explores the interplay of rich and evocative materials: oil paint, gold and silver leaf, oxidized copper leaf, mica powders and glitter. The resulting compositions are tight knit juxtapositions of carefully observed floral forms and geometric fracturing of space. Kushner continues to utilize chance operations both in the placement of the flowers and leaves as well as in designating the size and location of the background shapes.

Spring Scatter Summation, 7 x 45 feet in size, was created as a temporary installation to grace ten niches in the Great Room of Wistariahurst Museum in Holyoke, MA. It also traveled to the Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC. This series of ten panels can be viewed individually or as one panoramic vista. They were painted during the course of one spring, sequentially following the progression of northeast garden flowers, from forsythia in early March to peonies and lilacs in late May. The background treatment of gold and silver leaf and mica was created by utilizing chance operations with an overall organizational grid.

The twelve panels of Red Emperors, 5 x 36 feet, were painted on location in a garden in Long Island. The artist was poised before a long bed of multicolored tulips working with speed and abandon to catch the fleeting beauty of the tulip bed before inclement weather might put a premature end to its ephemeral splendor. The placement of the flowers was determined by the varying growth patterns of the different colors of tulips. The background shapes were added later in the artist’s studio utilizing chance.