Michael O'Rourke:digital smoke sculpture drawing for Frank Stella
Smoke Ring Graphics by Michael O'Rourke
for Frank Stella (1991 - 1992)
&
Prints and Paintings by Frank Stella
(1992 - present)
As the last stage of the Smoke sculptures I produced for Frank Stella, I wrote code to calculate cross-sectional slices through the three-dimensional digital forms and used a pen plotter to produce an elaborate series of line drawing construction drawings of the sculptures. While working on these drawings, I realized they were quite extraordinary, and I went to a great deal of trouble to fine-tune their graphics and composition. Stella agreed with me on their impact and asked me to further develop them. In all, I produced over 200 drawings for him. He then used these drawings very extensively in his prints and paintings for over ten years. Below are two examples of the drawings I produced for him, accompanied by several of the many prints and paintings he produced using them.
The Pequod Meets the Jeroboam, 1993
Frank Stella, Riallaro, 1995
Sanor, 1994
Loohooloo, 1994
Severinda, 1995
The Monkey-Rope, 1993
Das Erbeden in Chili (detail), 1999
Roncador, 1994
Spectralia, 1994
Frank Stella, The Whale Watch, 1993
Telepilus Laestrygonia I and II, 1997. Each painting of this diptych was 10' x 10'. The diptych was installed at the World Trade Center in NYC and was destroyed when those buildings were destroyed on 09/11/2001.
