06 May 2009

Pendulum paintings of Tom Shannon

I'm a huge fan of sculptor & painter Tom Shannon, a gentle genius who turns science into art and art into science. We just posted today his 2003 TED talk showing his gorgeous science-inspired sculptures and his vision for the Air Genie video airship. In the last few months he has returned to a form of painting he invented more than 20 years ago.  He created a mechanized paint dispenser that is suspended on a giant pendulum over a canvas on the floor. Tom sets the pendulum in motion, typically on an oval pathway, and then uses a remote control device to select with careful precision which paints are streamed onto the canvas and in what quantity.

At his Manhattan studio the other evening, I watched him in action. The results are spectacular. He's given me permission to share some of these images, none of which are up on his site yet. (Apart from the first two, these are details of larger paintings.) They are to be the subject of an exhibition in New York later this year. (Watch this space).

View the images in the Flickr set "New work from Tom Shannon" >>

or watch the slideshow:

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