I work with light. 

It’s a natural thing in this environment to see how old art fades out into the background and how new art takes its place. I started with a wish to capture and reflect those sparkly moments of sunlight scintillating on the waves.  The piece needed to be an integrated object.  I had no idea just what I would be integrating into – the sky, the sea or just the side of a brick building. 

My first attempt was disastrous.  A hundred feet of aluminized Mylar shredded in the first stiff breeze. I changed my materials to stiffer plastics, accepting that they must overlay a previous work---not fighting with it but respecting it. I sought to shape and manipulate everyday perception of the visual field, defined as the place the brick ended and the plywood began. 

Cutting Plexiglas strips and Lexan discs, I stenciled geometric shapes with spray lacquer, then reversed the surfaces.  The silver, blue and red reflect colors I saw in the water and patterns and shadows evoking the surroundings in the shipyard. Each piece moves slightly on a single pivot-point, complementing the forms below and highlighting the passage of time.

John Powell - 'Collected Reflection'

Plexiglas, Lexan, lacquer-based paint.

John Powell was born in Los Angeles.  He studied metal-smithing, foundry and printmaking early on.  He received his M.F.A. from Massachusetts College of Art in 1985 and his M.S. in Architecture (Visual Studies) from MIT in 1989.  He was a participant and organizer of Reclamation Artists installations from 1987 to 1991, and his installations were included in shows at the ICA-Boston, Bromfield Gallery, and Artery Arts.  He has exhibited in the past with Thomas Segal and Howard Yezerski Galleries, and he currently shows with the latter in Boston.  Powell’s past projects include illumination of the Charles River bridges (Anderson, Weeks, River Street and Western Avenue) and the Evelyn Moakley Bridge over Fort Point Channel, Boston.  He is currently illuminating the Memorial Bridge in Kittery, Maine. Powell has created other past installations at the Harvard Business School, the MIT Medical Center, Cold Condescend Physics Laboratory at MIT, New Balance Corporate Headquarters, Brighton, MA, and the Cambridge Arts Council.  His studio is in Brighton, MA.