Future Lives
- Title
- Future Lives
- LC Subject
- Acrylic painting Painting Painting, Abstract Mural painting and decoration painting (image-making) paintings (visual works) acrylic paintings (visual works)
- Creator
- Gray, Don
- Description
- This mural is composed of at least five distinct sections. When read from left to right, the piece repeats a circular motif whose form oscillates between the representation of natural settings and abstract, possibly psychological spaces. detail; future lives; central mural; © 1990 Don Gray The Oregon Arts Commission has ten Regional Arts Councils that provide delivery of art services and information. The Council for this location is: Eastern Oregon Regional Arts. You may view their website at http://www.artseast.org/
- View
- detail
- Location
- Powder River Correctional Facility >> Baker County >> Oregon >> United States
- Street Address
- 3600 13th Street, Baker City, Oregon
- Award Date
- 1990
- Identifier
- 1990_powder-riv-corr_03_a05
- Accession Number
- 1990_powder-riv-corr_03_a05
- Rights
- In Copyright
- Dc Rights Holder
- Gray, Don
- Type
- Image
- Format
- image/tiff
- Measurements
- 7 feet 6 inches x 28 feet 1.5 inches
- Material
- Painting; Mural; acrylic paint on hardboard
- Set
- Oregon Percent for Art
- Primary Set
- Oregon Percent for Art
- Relation
- 1990 Powder River Correctional Institution Collection 1990_powder-riv-corr
- Has Version
- slide; color
- Institution
- Oregon Arts Commission University of Oregon
- Color Space
- RGB
- Biographical Information
- I'm often asked what my paintings mean. In a way, asking that question misses the point. For me, it's like asking what does a sunrise "mean"; or a river?; a tree? Meaning in art is not in what we say but in what we feel. Defining something means finding its boundaries, its limits. Art is about transcending these boundaries. It resides in the realm of our imagination. Art speaks from the soul, to the soul. It defies rational explanation. It cannot and should not be "defined". I offer the following comments on FUTURE LIVES not to provide answers but hopefully to raise questions that might lead to a personal interpretation for each viewer. The large urns or vessels are a recurring theme in much of my work. Perhaps as stand-ins for the human they represent the soul; they could be varying states of mind or mood; maybe they're about change, movement or passage in time. I would like them to be all these things and more. In thinking about this project, the arch or gate form evolved quite naturally out of the vessel form. They seem to me to be about possibility, about choice. This facility itself is a gateway of sorts, the last stop in a transition from confinement to freedom. The related works in the dormitories and office areas are intended as echoes or extensions of the central mural. I wanted them to imply that FUTURE LIVES could be extended indefinitely, each panel modifying the others, providing all different point of view, another way of looking at things. I think of them as reflections of our lives--one experience building on another, changing us, leading us to the future. (Gray, 1990)
