I’m going to put one hundred luminescent duck sculptures in a visible location somewhere in Washington, D.C. While working on this street art project, I’ll document my progress online. You can see all the ducks created so far by going here.
Recently, I watched the movie Cardboard Bernini about artist James Grashow’s ambitious project to make an enormous cardboard installation. This is a great movie, and it made me think that I should experiment with cardboard to create different textures on a duck. I made duck #76 out of two Triscuit boxes.
In December, my mom, Alice Carter, visited and made duck #77. She is an award-winning illustrator and writer. With her expert brushwork, she was able to paint something beautiful on a rounded packing tape canvas.
Before Christmas, I helped my daughter clean her room, unearthing a cornucopia of potential duck building materials, many of which I used to make duck #78.
As I discovered last year, discarded gift wrappings make excellent duck building materials. I made duck #79 out of the straw ribbons and hand-drawn gift tags from my mom and stepfather Courtney Granner. My daughter also added several white Christmas trees. Coming from a family of artists, I often take for granted family drawings on birthday cards, envelopes, grocery lists, and gift tags. My wife, Elizabeth, is helping me recognize that all of these things are special. This duck is about that.
One challenge in building with discarded Christmas materials is that everything is disgustingly sweet and lovely. Such was the case with this paper chain of cute, red and green lederhosen-clad bears. So, I gave some of the bears scowls, severed limbs, or two heads. The result is duck #80.
This project is heading toward a final climactic moment. Right now I’m going through the thrilling experience of trying to get a permit from the D.C. Department of Transportation to display the ducks in a soon-to-be-disclosed location in D.C. I hope to have a final plan in place soon.
