Flight of the Spectrum

April 16, 2019 by David

Seattle World School

In this school we learn to fly together, no matter where you come from.

A couple of years I was contacted by the Washington State Arts Commission about creating a project for a newly remodeled school in Seattle. I had no idea at that time what an amazing opportunity this would be, or what an incredible place Seattle World School is.

” It is one of only a few schools in the country designed as a preliminary entry point for immigrant children in their quest for academic achievement and full participation in American society.”

At the school there was a community of amazing faculty and volunteers working diligently toward this goal. I also met some dynamic students who helped in the forming of these acrylic bird forms. Seattle World School’s mission made me feel great pride in the values of our community. Their work should be commended for being at the forefront of helping the most vulnerable in our society.

The principal, Dr. Bruno Cross, told me the story of one 14 year old student. Just two weeks prior to being at the school, he was alone, riding on top of a train across Mexico, bound for the border. These are the kinds of kids that find them selves here. They find themselves embraced by a community who welcomes them, and is invested in their success.

It was a great honor to be selected to create something for this institution and this community that embodies these values.

The Concept

This drawing became the concept for the project. I thought the way I hung the ceramic fish in The Ghost School sculpture had some potential for different types of applications. I had been thinking that a flock of birds could work in a similar fashion.

When I visited the school office, there hung a chandelier of origami birds, nearly a thousand of them that one of the faculty had made. My visit to the the school breathed some life and story into the concept. The concept resonated with the school’s art committee, especially their art teacher Lori Leberer, who was head of the committee. With their approval the concept went into full design mode.

From Drawing to Reality

My process involves doing some mechanical drawings. These serve to to begin the dialogue with the engineer, Dave Hornsby of IDE Engineers. We have worked on many projects together large and small and the process was pretty straightforward. I decided to have the birds grouped into the colors of the spectrum and as they ascend they would no longer be constrained to their place in the spectrum

I also needed something to hang my flock from and I engaged my friend and collaborator Aaron Whelton to help design the grid the birds would hang from.

virtual design for the apparatus the flock hangs from — design for the apparatus that the flock hangs from

The Birds

Originally, I wanted to make the birds from laminated safety glass. I soon realized that it was not a practical approach for a variety of reasons. I was surprised to learn that the colors available in glass were not what I had been envisioning. Acrylic seemed like a perfect choice as it would be safe and durable, have the look of glass, a proper spectrum of colors. I would also

have an unlimited supply of birds to populate the sculpture with.

As a middle schooler in Colorado I attended Hill Middle School. I had an awesome shop teacher, Mr. Adams. In his plastic shop class I learned the technique of line bending acrylic to make my Mom a plastic napkin holder. This technique would be the solution to getting the array of bends I needed for the sculpture. Thanks Mr. Adams!

The colorful acrylic bird forms that make up the Flight of the Spectrum Sculpture

Installation

Installing something like this is a multiple day task. We attached 120 birds to an array of 210 strings. I had a lot of help from Spencer West, my wife Joanne Franklin, and my daughter Ruby.

Thank You!

The Faculty, Staff, and Students of Seattle World School, Lori Leberer, Dr. Bruno Cross, Chuck Zimmer, Aaron Whelton, IDE Engineering, Kurt Nordquist, Spencer West, Joanne Franklin, Ruby Franklin and Hieu Tran and the Washington State Arts Commission

Thanks for learning more about this project and Seattle World School,

David

New Installation “Sculpture in the Garden”

July 19, 2018 by David

The Crouching Figure Post — The Crouching Figure

The Back Story

This installation was made for the garden of a neighbor who travels the world collecting and teaching about exotic plants. He has thereby created an amazing garden at his home in Indianola WA. We have worked together on several projects over the years. He was interested in a series of posts for installation in his garden. He was interested in evoking some of the spirit of the Janseung (a type of totem-like carving from Korea) that he has encountered in his travels. Starting at this point I began to research and draw.

This project is intended to have some of the whimsical aspects of Janseung merged with some southern Salish Sea and coastal Alaskan influence. I chose second-growth Red Cedar for the project. The Cedar is readily available and locally sourced, though often dismissed as a low grade material for carving. The cedar was the perfect choice for this project consisting of relatively simple, but large scale, sculptures.

Each post is set back into the garden with the bases mostly hidden by the lower story of growth. The posts are mostly only able to be seen individually or with glimpses of another post in the background. Each post reveals itself in unexpected ways as you move around this hidden paradise.

I enlisted the help of Spencer West to help carve and with the sourcing, milling prepping, install and some of the carving. He is an accomplished timber framer and equipped with the tools to work with large logs. Spencer was a great asset to the project.

The Tracks of the Bear Post — The Tracks of the Bear

Faces of Day and Night — The Night and the Day

Spencer West and The Circles and Squares — Spencer West and the Circles and Squares Post

Images of the Carving Process

Below are some progression pictures of the carving of the Tentacle. The pictures depict Spencer’s rough out, secondly, refining the curves, and adding the details in my studio.

Dave Meyers of Myorian Studios in Indianola also helped on the project. Dave manufactured all the structural elements that hold up the posts. The parts of this project were all made by Indianola artists.

Thanks to: Camas West Spencer West, Dave Meyers, Sammy Hughes, and the best wife a guy could have, Joanne.

David

Drift Inversion Wins PAN Year in Review Award

June 16, 2018 by David

Drift Inversion Sculpture — Drift Inversion by David Franklin and Aaron Whelton 2017

Drift Inversion by David Franklin and Aaron Whelton Honored Today at Americans for the Arts Annual Convention

Portland, OR, June 15, 2018—Americans for the Arts today honored outstanding public arts projects created in 2017 through the Public Art Network Year in Review program, the only national program that specifically recognizes the most compelling public art. Chosen by public art experts, the roster of selected projects was unveiled this morning at Americans for the Arts’ Annual Convention in Denver.

One of the honored projects is “Drift Inversion” (2017), by David Franklin, artist, and Aaron Whelton, architect and Assistant Professor at Portland State University. This is David Franklin’s second Public Art Network’s Year in Review award.

Drift Inversion is an undulating aluminum installation in an underpass located in a developing Denver neighborhood, which was once the former grounds of Stapleton International Airport, and before that, a vast expanse of sand dunes.

Franklin and Whelton were inspired by a quote from John Steinbeck’s novel “The Grapes of Wrath” (1939): “Every moving thing lifted the dust into the air: a walking man lifted a thin layer as high as his waist, and a wagon lifted the dust as high as the fence tops, and an automobile boiled a cloud behind it. The dust was long in settling back again.”

The underlying dunes of this thriving metropolitan area were the inspiration for Drift Inversion, which turns the original landscape upside-down and transforms an otherwise cold and dark space into a place of wonder and warmth. Made from aluminum, paint and steel, the installation measures 18 by 128 by 32 feet.

Project Partners were Park Creek Metropolitan District, Denver Arts & Venues, Denver Parks and Recreation, Barbara Neal, Civitas, and Mortensen Construction.

“The best of public art can challenge, delight, educate, and illuminate. Most of all, public art creates a sense of civic vitality in the cities, towns, and communities we inhabit and visit,” said Robert L. Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts. “As these Public Art Network Year in Review selections illustrate, public art has the power to enhance our lives on a scale that little else can. I congratulate the artists and commissioning groups for these community treasures, and I look forward to honoring more great works in the years to come.”

This is the 17th year that Americans for the Arts has recognized public art works. The projects selected for Year in Review can be viewed on this page and are on display throughout the Annual Convention. Three independent public art experts—Bryan Lee, Jr., director of design at Colloqate Design in New Orleans; Karen Mack, executive director of LA Commons in Los Angeles; and Denver artist Patrick Marold—discussed the trends they uncovered while examining hundreds of submissions in selecting this year’s choices for the most exemplary, innovative permanent or temporary public art works created or debuted in 2017.

Americans for the Arts is the leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts and arts education in America. With offices in Washington, D.C., and New York City, it has a record of more than 55 years of service. Americans for the Arts is dedicated to representing and serving local communities and creating opportunities for every American to participate in and appreciate all forms of the arts. Additional information is available at www.AmericansForTheArts.org.

Thank you to everyone who worked so hard on this project to make it happen.

David

You Are Invited to the Drift Inversion Dedication

September 23, 2017 by David

You Are Invited!

Public Art Dedication for:

DRIFT INVERSION

Sculpture in Sandhills Prairie Park

Date: Friday, September 29, 2017 Time: 10:00 – 11:00 am

Location: 5311 North Central Park Boulevard Underpass between Fifty-Third and Fifty-Fourth Avenues

Stapleton, Colorado

Please join us for refreshments and meet the artists,

David Franklin and Aaron Whelton

RSVP: Barbara Neal barbneal@mindspring.com

Cultural House of Cards on Seattle’s “The Stranger”

January 14, 2017 by David

The Cultural House of Cards on the Cover of Seattle's The Stranger — David Franklin’s Cultural House of Cards on the Cover of Seattle’s free weekly newspaper, The Stranger, for the week of Jan 11-17 2017.

This house of cards symbolizes the fragile cultural structure we build together in our societies, and the beauty within each part of it.

Ever since my wife and I moved to Seattle in 1993 there has only been one source for truly comprehensive coverage of local music and arts, that has been The Stranger, Seattle’s best free weekly paper. If you are looking for an event, no matter how obscure it’s in The Stranger. The Stranger has an independent minded perspective on anything and everything important happening in the city and the world, with a true sense of grit and intelligence. It’s this creative viewpoint that has always made it the final word in Seattle’s vibrant culture.

The digital version of this week’s Stranger can be seen here.

This is such an honor because of the feeling of acceptance in my local arts community it provides, something that has not always come easy for me.

This piece, The Cultural House of Cards, sits within the high barbed wire fence of The Green Hill School in Chehalis, WA, but it has refused to stay imprisoned. WIth a feeling of it having a life of it’s own this project has gained the attention of Hi Fructose Magazine, Montreal’s Mural Festival and now The Stranger. Its themes are very appropriate to the times we live in and the challenges before us a s a diverse society.

Cultural House of with daughters. — Sitting in the Cultural House of cards with my daughters prior to painting.

My wife Joanne, my kids, Mike Sweney, The Green Hill School, Kurt Nordquist, Brian Perry, Scott Wipff, Jonathan Areola, and Western Graphics all had important roles in making this Washington State Arts Commission happen.

Thanks to everyone that has enjoyed this project and seen the importance of the message about all of us contained within it,

David

New Public Art For the Port of San Diego

November 13, 2015 by David

“And it never failed that during the dry years the people forgot about the rich years, and during the wet years they lost all memory of the dry years. It was always that way.”

John Steinbeck-East of Eden

For the past couple of years I have been working on a major project for the Lane Field North Development in the Port of San Diego. The theme is water, and for this place it could not be a more powerful symbol. The lack of water, and at times the raging overabundance of water has been a force that has shaped California, moved its populations, created riches and hardships, and at time battles between neighbors. It is also the same story through the West and has driven people in desperation to California for its dream of the promised land. It could not be a more timeless and powerful symbol, and developments like this could not exist without out it. The Port of San Diego itself exists because of it.

When complete the sculpture will be three stories tall on the South side of the building and four on the North and divided into two 220 foot lengths. Monumental in scale, it has the Pacific Coast Highway on one side and Harbor Avenue on the other. Cruise ships and aircraft carriers park nearby and trains pass through the station across the street as well. It is a great honor to be working on this project with John Portman Associates who designed the building and LFN Developers who are making it all happen, and also to Clark Steel Fabricators who is fabricating and installing the project..

Special thanks to Aaron Whelton, Kurt Nordquist and IDE Engineers who help me realize major projects like this.