MD -- Silver Spring -- Public Art: A Brushstroke of Discovery (porcelain enamel mural by Narcissus Quagliatain) @ Discovery HQ:
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- Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
- BRUSH_031113_01.JPG: This mural (shown on this and the next three pictures) is on a wall outside of the Discovery Headquarters building.
- Description of Subject Matter: Outside Mural:
One of the prominent features of this building is a porcelain enamel on steel mural which runs the length of the buidling's Colesville Road side. The work, called "A Brushstroke of Discovery", is 2200 Square feet, 180 feet wide, and 9 feet tall at one end and 18 feet at the other end. It was done by Narcissus Quagliatain 2003 with co-credits given to Esmaltados Alfher ("Porcelain enamel on steel, manufacturing and silk-screen process, Mexico City") and Pablo Torrealba ("Silk screen and digital process design, Mexico City"). According to Narcissus web site at http://www.nquagliata.com/abrushstroke3.html:
Inspiration:
The foundation of this work is the very simple premise that the entire history of our planet is but a single brushstroke on the immense canvas of the cosmos, and that life is in perpetual transformation. The theme of discovery runs throughout the entire mural as a thread that holds the entire work compositionally together and makes it flow from one image to the next.
Innovation:
This very large mural is in itself an innovation, because it presents a painting that can be placed outdoors without fading and lose color intensity. Painting traditionally is a medium that cannot be exposed to the elements for it's chemical fragility.
A meeting of art and industry:
In essence the mural is a fine art image that has been realized by adapting and extending industrial methods to achieve durable surfaces for the exterior of buildings with fired glass enamels. The mural has been made possible by the close collaboration of the artist, Narcissus Quagliata, Alfonso Hernandez of Esmaltados Alfher, and Pablo Torrealba, director of the silk-screen studio at Alfher, in Mexico City.
The work merges together into one event the disciplines of painting, photography, silk-screen, computer digital work, and the final direct intervention of the artist on the surface of the work.
In the context of a life dedicated to imagination in the creation of imagery and exploration in investigating materials, two recent works stand out as major achievements in Quagliata's career.
"Divinity in Light" is a contemporary glass dome that was placed to complete the Rotunda of the basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli, in Rome.
"A Brushstroke of Discovery " the mural for Discovery Communications is a monumental work highly figurative that invites the viewer to reflect on the uniqueness of life itself, and the variety of it's forms and on the history of our very planet.
Both works thread together science and art.
The mural is at street level, and is the largest mural of it's kind facing the elements.
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