Andy Behrle (rhymes with “curly”) is one of the most well-spoken and down to earth artists you'll come across. From Boston to Phoenix to Yakima to Maui, he’s taught and exhibited art + raised his 5-year old son, Leo, wherever his wife - a pediatrician with Kaiser - has been needed most.
When he came across the SMALL TOWN * BIG ART call to artists earlier this year, his wife told him, “they don’t know this yet, but you are exactly who they are looking for.”
Artists were asked to choose a Hawaiian proverb as inspiration for their proposal, specifically related to kalo or water, with evaluation criteria aimed at quality, style, experience in creating communal or public art and significance to Wailuku.
Andy’s artistic subject of choice? Water. “Over the past six years, I have been using digital technologies to capture and re-contextualize the colors and textures of bodies of water around the country. The resulting works have taken various forms- from fully immersive interactions with digital video footage of microcosms inside a twenty-foot diameter geodesic dome projection screen to more intimate compositions inspired by Victorian wallpaper, traditional quilt block patterns, and stained-glass windows. These compositions respond directly to the hosting venue and use the various textures of water to investigate systems and ideas of place and time,” reads his artist statement from a recent project in Tunisia.
“My plan is to re-imagine stained glass windows of an historic Wailuku structure with each piece of glass filled with light from a projector illuminating water” says the artist, “Through these video compositions, a building can become whatever is projected upon it. Imagine the walls of the ghostly structure illuminated by watery versions of the historic stained glass of Wailuku’s churches. I dream of reproducing those of the Gothic 1919 St. Anthony’s Church lost to fire in 1977.”
And here’s where we need your help!
Since being named the first of thirteen SMALL TOWN * BIG ART installations (August 2: save the date!), Andy has sought help from museums, libraries and schools to obtain photographs of St. Anthony Church in Wailuku, PRE-1977. It would mean SO MUCH to him if you could share what you have, or family that he can speak with.
Please share your ideas in the comments section here.
When he came across the SMALL TOWN * BIG ART call to artists earlier this year, his wife told him, “they don’t know this yet, but you are exactly who they are looking for.”
Artists were asked to choose a Hawaiian proverb as inspiration for their proposal, specifically related to kalo or water, with evaluation criteria aimed at quality, style, experience in creating communal or public art and significance to Wailuku.
Andy’s artistic subject of choice? Water. “Over the past six years, I have been using digital technologies to capture and re-contextualize the colors and textures of bodies of water around the country. The resulting works have taken various forms- from fully immersive interactions with digital video footage of microcosms inside a twenty-foot diameter geodesic dome projection screen to more intimate compositions inspired by Victorian wallpaper, traditional quilt block patterns, and stained-glass windows. These compositions respond directly to the hosting venue and use the various textures of water to investigate systems and ideas of place and time,” reads his artist statement from a recent project in Tunisia.
“My plan is to re-imagine stained glass windows of an historic Wailuku structure with each piece of glass filled with light from a projector illuminating water” says the artist, “Through these video compositions, a building can become whatever is projected upon it. Imagine the walls of the ghostly structure illuminated by watery versions of the historic stained glass of Wailuku’s churches. I dream of reproducing those of the Gothic 1919 St. Anthony’s Church lost to fire in 1977.”
And here’s where we need your help!
Since being named the first of thirteen SMALL TOWN * BIG ART installations (August 2: save the date!), Andy has sought help from museums, libraries and schools to obtain photographs of St. Anthony Church in Wailuku, PRE-1977. It would mean SO MUCH to him if you could share what you have, or family that he can speak with.
Please share your ideas in the comments section here.
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