joe penrod

New Website

2011-10-19T10:29:00.000-07:00

You should go here instead Joe Penrod

Flag

2011-09-05T18:00:00.000-07:00

Deflated

2011-01-05T13:53:00.000-08:00

*all photos by Timothy Mahan

Half/Dozen Gallery Installation

2010-12-03T07:26:00.000-08:00

Front Porch at Half/Dozen Gallery

2010-12-02T14:52:00.000-08:00

Installation for Half/Dozen Gallery. Mylar balloons and painters tape. The balloons will slowly deflate over the course of the installation, leaving a metallic pool of empty balloons and their blue, inflated shadows above them.

Weekly Volcano Review

2010-10-06T22:04:00.000-07:00

Object Permanence
Joe Penrod's blue shadows dance inside Fulcrum Gallery

By Alec Clayton on October 6, 2010

I reviewed an exhibition of Joe Penrod's intriguing blue-tape shadows three years ago at the now defunct Black Front Gallery in Olympia. The works he's showing at Fulcrum Gallery in Tacoma are exactly the same only more sophisticated.

The idea is as profound as it is simple. He traces the cast shadows of objects in buildings and on the streets and "paints in the outlines" with blue painter's tape. The light changes, the actual shadows change shape, overlapping the taped shadows or in some instances visually dancing with them in fascinating ways. The tape-shadows then become records of things that were there and now aren't or are still there but in a changed formation. The installations don't last, but the photographic records do.

He has installed one such shadow on the sidewalk outside Fulcrum. It has been broken and partially destroyed by the feet of pedestrians, but is intact again as it crawls up the side of the building. Inside he has installed another such shadow sculpture-painting. In this case four sawhorses are stacked feet-to-feet and top-to-top. The installation stands about 10 feet tall and "casts" a blue-tape shadow across the floor, up the wall and onto about five feet of ceiling.

In addition, he is displaying a collection of photographs of installations in various locations from Tacoma to New York, and an odd and totally unrelated conceptual piece consisting of engraved glass bottles into which people in various places sang the same song at the same time leaving a record of condensed human breath in the sealed bottles - an interesting concept, but boring to look at.

Back to the blue shadows. The photographs are beautiful, especially when actual shadows overlap or create halos around the constructed shadows. In the small photographs printed on maple panels the tape edges don't show and the color is more intense than the actual pieces. The photos, in other words, are better art than the art photographed. Plus they are permanent, which the installations aren't, and they're reasonably priced.

In Chung King Rd. (LA) paper lanterns hang across a deserted street casting shadows on the street below. The lanterns glow orange as a jack-o-lantern and their overlapping cast and taped shadows are a complementary blue and gray. It's very beautiful, as is Leaves Olympia, blue-black, dark blue, light blue and gray shadows of green fronds in a concrete planter.

Best of all is Tacoma Sit-In (With Beautiful Angel), a document of an art event in Tacoma with large groups of people helping Penrod tape the shadows of people and chairs. In the photo there are many more shadows than chairs plus at least one shadow of a dancer who is no longer dancing - a moment in history captured in painters' tape. If I could buy one of these, this would be the one I'd want.

If you haven't seen this show, it's worth catching.
Object Permanence

Through Oct. 16, noon to 6 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and by appointment
Fulcrum Gallery, 1308 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Tacoma
253.250.0520

Pillar by Day

2010-09-17T22:13:00.000-07:00

Pillar by Day (installation at Fulcrum Gallery, Tacoma, WA)

sawhorses, wood glue, screws, painter's tape

Choros

2010-09-17T22:09:00.000-07:00

Choros
Human breath in etched glass bottles

Friends and family across the country were asked to sing the same song into these bottles, at the exact same moment, and seal them when finished. They were then united in a choir. The condensation of their breath is the only recording of the act.

Tacoma Weed

2010-08-30T10:45:00.000-07:00

Tacoma Traffic

2010-07-25T21:01:00.000-07:00

2010-07-25T20:53:00.000-07:00

Chung King Rd, LA- 2pm

2010-06-29T08:27:00.000-07:00

My 76 year old father, my 7 year old son and Mike Whiting helped out.

Denver

2010-05-27T16:07:00.001-07:00

Ivar from Plus Gallery in Denver invited me to make a piece in front of the gallery.

Tacoma Contemporary Installation

2010-05-26T22:06:00.001-07:00

Click on image for full view

More Pallet/Palette

2010-05-23T17:41:00.000-07:00

Installation for Tacoma Contemporary, Pallet/Pallette

2009-11-04T21:24:00.000-08:00

Untitled. Ink on paper

2009-11-03T21:02:00.000-08:00

Tollefson Plaza Tacoma 6PM

2009-09-13T21:33:00.000-07:00

Tacoma Sit-In

2009-09-11T17:44:00.000-07:00

Somewhere around 50 people turned up to tape chair shadows with us Thursday afternoon. Everyone did a great job on their shadows and enjoyed themselves. Thanks to Tom and Lance from Beautiful Angle for organizing the whole thing. The Weekly Volcano wrote a nice little recap.

Tacoma SIT IN

2009-09-01T15:28:00.000-07:00

My friends Lance and Tom from Beautiful Angle were nice enough to invite me to make some art with them in Tacoma next week. The official invitation is below, so if you are in the area, please come and bring a chair and some tape! Or just show up and help or hang out.

Inviting you to be part of a renegade art project. Beautiful Angle is encouraging you to be part of the fun this month.

The poster this month will feature two guest artists William Kupinse, former poet laureate of Tacoma. And up and coming silkscreen artist, Tyler Kalberg.
A chair is a great symbol for Tacoma, practical and inviting.

Okay so here is how it’s gonna work. There are at least three ways in which you can participate. 1. Create an “Art Chair” and leave it out on the street in some conspicuous location. 2. Create your own chair themed guerrilla art. 3. Bring a chair and a roll of blue painters tape to Tollefson Plaza at 4:00pm on September 10th. We will be creating a flash mob, art project with the help of local artist Joe Penrod. The first 50 people to show up, with said supplies, will get the latest Beautiful Angle poster.

TAKE a SEAT.

Lance Kagey
Co-founder, Beautiful Angle

I Love Sticky Tape

2009-07-27T07:30:00.000-07:00

I did a really short interview with Jacqui Ma on I Love Sticky Tape Can you believe there is a blog dedicated to sticky tape art and design? It is amazing. I've found some cool artists on there that I didn't know about. Check it out.

Ruby Magazine

2009-07-21T15:19:00.000-07:00

I'm included in the new Issue of Ruby Magazine (#38).

along with
Nick Van Woert (USA)
William Edmonds (UK)
Carolyn Monastra (USA)
Liang-Yin Wang (Taiwan)
John MacNair (USA)
Katharina Trudzinski (Germany)

2009-05-04T16:36:00.000-07:00

Wooden egg with pencil shadow

Egg

2009-03-29T20:48:00.000-07:00

wooden egg and blue painters tape

Orange and Blue (a Column for Brancusi)

2009-02-24T18:59:00.000-08:00

A column built from found traffic cones with a shadow of blue tape. For the show Enter/Exit at Swarm Gallery Oakland, CA.

2009-02-13T07:36:00.000-08:00

ENTER/EXIT | JARED CLARK & JAKE WATLING
Project Space | ORANGE AND BLUE | JOE PENROD

February 20 - March 29, 2009

Artist Reception | Friday, February 20, 2009, 6-8PM

PROJECT SPACE | Joe Penrod

City explorer Joe Penrod, uses ordinary blue painters tape to document every day icons of the urban landscape - traffic cones, stop signs, benches, garbage cans and ladders, to name a few. For this installation in Swarm's project space, he plans to build a column of traffic cones in reference to Constantin Brancusi's "Endless Column." His tape shadows mimic shadows cast by the sun, yet the bright blue contrasts to what our eyes expect to see, creating a beautiful and surreal illusion.

If you are in the Bay Area I hope to see you there.

Fragmentary Evidence

2009-02-05T08:52:00.000-08:00

David at Fragmentary Evidence (an Oakland based blog) wrote a nice post on my work. Go check it out.

2009-01-28T22:51:00.000-08:00

I think this is actually from 04, but I have never photographed it before.

Leg and Lung

2009-01-26T19:58:00.000-08:00

47 miles

2009-01-26T19:53:00.000-08:00

This is older but I don't think I have ever taken a real photo of it before

Squamous

2009-01-18T21:56:00.000-08:00

ink on paper

Olympia capitol campus: leaves 2:30

2008-09-07T15:00:00.001-07:00

leaves 2:30

2008-09-07T14:58:00.000-07:00

On Hold

2008-08-27T20:07:00.000-07:00

Wite-Out and ink on paper done while on hold

Lunch Break

2008-08-26T22:16:00.000-07:00

Wite-Out and ink on paper.

2008-08-23T13:43:00.000-07:00

Wite-Out and ink on paper

4PM Pasadena

2008-08-22T19:42:00.001-07:00

ink and wite-out on paper

Sand Shadows

2008-08-14T19:58:00.000-07:00

I dug out the shadows of these two pieces of the wreck of the Peter Iredale at Fort Stevens State Park in Oregon. I was waiting for the shadow to move to take some more pictures when a family came up to admire it and then laughed as their 10 year old son destroyed it.

OK City Pallet

2008-05-10T12:07:00.000-07:00

Oklahoma City Pallet 11:50am

2008-05-09T16:44:00.000-07:00

Knick Knacks

2008-04-30T21:50:00.001-07:00

I was invited to do some work in my friend Jennyrose's shop, Room 30 for Olympia Art's Walk.

Olympia Arts Walk

2008-04-30T20:52:00.000-07:00

Ties in Room 30 for Arts Walk.

Black Front Gallery

2008-04-04T19:46:00.000-07:00

A couple of pieces in a group show at The Black Front Gallery tonight

2007-10-23T18:51:00.000-07:00

a bit blurry, but I just wanted to see how the shadow looked freed from the object that cast it.

2007-10-23T18:50:00.001-07:00

2007-10-22T21:14:00.000-07:00

I did this one in the dining room during dinner. Blue painters tape, chicken with kale and white beans.

Blanket Magazine

2007-10-14T16:28:00.000-07:00

Blanket Magazine is an online art and design magazine based in Australia. They interviewed me for this months issue. Click on Release 2 to download the pdf. (issue 6- Good vs Evil)

Swarm Blog

2007-10-02T14:05:00.001-07:00

Svea in front of Swarm's room. There are more images from the Art Affair on the Swarm Gallery blog.

Art Affair installation for Swarm Gallery

2007-09-17T09:29:00.000-07:00

This is the installation I did for Swam Gallery in Oakland. It rained the day I went down to install, so I had to wait until night and use a flood light to creat any sort of shadow at all. Jared and I taped all the way down behind the plastic, that is part of the blue glow you see. People kept trying to throw the cup away.

Portland Art Affair at the Jupiter Hotel

2007-09-16T00:16:00.000-07:00

See if you can spot the shadow on the last one

Rock- Vancouver, BC

2007-08-28T21:14:00.000-07:00

2007-08-21T16:14:00.000-07:00

blue painters tape on sidewalk

Leak

2007-08-08T10:50:00.001-07:00

2007-08-02T18:12:00.000-07:00

2007-08-02T07:51:00.001-07:00

Sink

2007-08-02T07:48:00.000-07:00

Eagle & Western, Seattle 1:25

2007-04-23T23:20:00.000-07:00

Robson St, Vancouver BC- 3:30

2007-04-23T23:17:00.000-07:00

Olympia 1:00

2007-03-25T18:35:00.000-07:00

Olympia 1:00

2007-03-25T18:30:00.000-07:00

2007-03-25T18:12:00.000-07:00

Olympia 12:20

2007-03-25T18:04:00.000-07:00

Alec Clayton from the Weekly Volcano

2007-02-22T14:24:00.000-08:00

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Visual Edge: Joe Penrod's "Painted Shadows"

Painted shadows
with his back against the sun joe penrod creates unique visuals / by alec clayton

Joe Penrod's "painted shadows" are a kind of working class public art with a short "shelf life."
You probably noticed the quotation marks. That's because there are no actual names for the things Penrod does - at least not names that are commonly accepted. He documents spatial relationships between objects and time of day by "tracing" or "coloring in" the shapes of cast shadows with common painter's blue masking tape. The objects whose shadows he traces are common objects such as bottles, ladders, fire hydrants and stop signs found in public spaces, and his art is left in the places in which they are created. Understandably, they may not always last very long. But he documents at least some of them with photographs.
Penrod is showing a number of these works at Black Front Gallery in Olympia. The show includes a soft drink cup in the window with its shadow, a child's chair with its shadow, a ladder with its shadow, a plant with its shadow, and the shadow of an electrician with his electrical chord. Like Elvis, the electrician has long since left the building, but his shadow remains.
In addition to these found objects and their shadows, there are small photographs of many of his installations in other places and a group of eight gouache paintings of shadows cast by electrical wires. Some of the actual objects are intriguing to look at while others look somewhat tawdry. Overall, I believe the photographs look better than the actual objects for the simple reason that the edges where pieces of tape overlap do not show in the photographs. The shadows look more solid, and color modulation along their edges create a halo effect where cast shadows and tape-painted shadows overlap. This overlapping effect is especially important because the actual shadows change with lighting conditions, but the taped shadows never change.
A small paper cup sitting in the window seems almost as if left there by accident with its nice blue shadow crawling up the wall.
Near the back of the gallery is a ladder with a shadow almost twice as tall as the ladder itself. This combination creates an intriguing play of line between the real and the imagined. Across from it, a man's shadow overlaps the edges of a strange little doorway in the wall - a door that is no taller than five-foot-four.
The least effective piece is a flower pot sitting on the floor with a heavy blue tape shadow. More than any of the other pieces, the overlapping pieces of tape are clumsy and heavy looking.
On the back wall is a group of eight small gouache paintings that look like purely abstract forms in a semi-transparent blue on white paper. The forms are sensuous and well designed. But they are not abstract; they are traced shadows from electrical wires.
Overall, this is a very nice show based on a unique visual concept.
The show runs through February. The gallery, at 106 Fourth Ave. in Olympia, has expanded its hours of operation. It is now open 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

2007-02-05T10:37:00.000-08:00

some images from the show

2007-02-04T09:09:00.000-08:00

2007-01-23T08:00:00.000-08:00

Up next in the gallery is Joe Penrod, an Olympia artist who's "tape" painting will certainly be something new for us. Using ordinary blue painters tape to copy cast shadows from everyday icons of the urban landscape - stop signs, trash bins, door handles. As the sun arcs in the sky and the shadow continues to crawl across the surface, Penrod photographs the moment in almost surreal simplicity. The result are images of a single object casting dual shadows, images of two true moments in time, vivid blue contrasting the dull grey concrete and shadow. Although visually and conceptually very simple, this is truly something you have to see to understand. Coincidentally, the show opens on Friday, February 2nd, Groundhog's day.

more drawings

2007-01-21T21:56:00.000-08:00

I can't seem to get these to scan right. The paper is actually white and smooth.
These are all pretty small, somewhere around 4"x4" or so. Unfortunately, I did these before I found the frames I am going to use, so I have to do 8 new ones that are 3"x5". These are actually not abstractions, they are shadows from wires as they fell on the page.

2007-01-14T14:26:00.000-08:00

I'm working on a bunch of these little (4"x4") gouaches for my show. This is a shadow of a small electrical chord.

2007-01-12T18:30:00.000-08:00

This is an old self-portrait

Upcoming Show

2006-12-11T12:52:00.000-08:00

Feb 2nd at The Black Front Gallery in Olympia, WA
It is a coincidence that the opening is on groundhog day, but maybe I'll throw in a groundhog shadow somewhere.

2006-11-28T18:05:00.000-08:00

Dallas with Rob

2006-11-28T17:54:00.000-08:00

Dallas

2006-11-28T17:50:00.000-08:00

Dallas with Rob

More BYU Tape

2006-11-28T17:47:00.000-08:00

BYU Tape

2006-11-27T15:19:00.000-08:00

Provo, UT with Josh, Dave, and Prof Penrod

2006-11-22T08:13:00.000-08:00

Rob on the Seattle Art Museum

Bottle 4 weeks later

2006-11-17T13:56:00.000-08:00

TAPE

2006-11-16T20:30:00.000-08:00

Dallas

2006-11-15T17:23:00.000-08:00

TAPE

2006-11-14T21:05:00.000-08:00

tape

2006-10-31T19:34:00.000-08:00

another view

2006-10-31T08:22:00.000-08:00

TAPE

2006-10-24T22:18:00.000-07:00

Richmond, VA
Williamsburg, NY

Paint

2006-10-15T20:47:00.000-07:00

.. in a funny noise

Paint

2006-10-09T21:32:00.000-07:00

PAINT

2006-10-08T15:48:00.000-07:00

the vasculature of august

Paint

2006-10-05T13:05:00.000-07:00

tape

2006-10-05T10:29:00.000-07:00

Paint

2006-09-12T20:41:00.000-07:00

TAPE

2006-07-11T10:16:00.000-07:00