Brady Edwards, Plexus 29 & Block Plan Series

Brady Edwards

      Plexus 19, instead of taking what I know and squeezing it through the eyes of the artist managed to take what's familiar and make real the intangible. It was massive to scale, it was captivating to the eye, and, per design, made color fly around and move as you stared up at it and walked underneath. I've seen fleeting glimpses of the color spectrum my whole life in the water of my sprinkler, in the moist air after a storm, and in looking through windows. To see it turned into something that isn't ephemeral, but has substance and can be stared at, was really cool. The artist also gave one of the sides of the piece an interesting bend, like the colors were being bent against something.

      Like me, I imagine the artist has seen spectrums of color throughout his life. You can't catch them, you can only appreciate them until they're gone. With the right kind of imagination and enough color thread, he made a really cool piece of art that transcended a canvas, a frame, even a wall.

     The same can be said for the Block Plan series, but in an opposite kind of way. The city of Provo has been around me for years, and though the city buildings aren't towering or too impressive, they're constant and are a very real part of my life. It's possible that the artist felt the same way, and wondered what it would look like, turning Provo into a piece of art. Containing Provo to a canvas doesn't do the town justice, though. It would only follow that in the same way we've seen portrayals of music flying off of paper, or words coming off of pages, so too should Provo be expressed.

      The artist seemed to allow the familiar imagery to stand on its own to viewers, choosing to use minimal color and detail. They're buildings we all recognize, and so having them stand as basic representations of their larger forms seemed to be impressive in and of itself. The rectangles, the blue lines that wrapped themselves around the cityscape, both on the wall and on the 3D cutouts that ran around on the floor, it all made for an enjoyable visual display.