SEPTEMBER 26
click on the picture below to see a larger image
STARRY NIGHT, 2015
22" x 30", Acrylic on paper, $7,500
KALTENBACH ANNOTATIONS:
This cenotaph is a large black helium balloon that is at least twenty feet in diameter. It has on it the entire night sky with all of the visible stars represented with twinkle lights. The lights should be of appropriate size to match the stars they represent. It should be unobtrusively tethered with a black line.
My relationship with balloons began when I was three when I had to pop my
brother's balloon because I accidentally popped mine. I'm sorry for that, David
and sorry that it's 72 years after the fact.
I was next attracted to balloons when I was in the US Navy. The aerographers
would be lofting weather balloons off the fantail while I was swabbing the deck.
Their job looked much more fun than mine so I asked about it and found that my
G.C.T. test, (aptitude test.) qualified me for weatherman school. When I learned
that I had to sign for a longer enlistment I was torn but then I decided that I
really wasn't; there was no way I wanted more of the Navy than I was already
committed to.
Then in 1969 came Balloon Fooey. It was an exercise I devised for artists. All
that was required was a large studio and a supply of balloons. And, I should
add, a high threshold of embarrassment. It is a pseudo martial art in which you
kick balloons around trying to keep them up in the air. I liked that I didn't
have to go to the gym. Doing that over the years, I kept quite fit.
WORKS THAT RELATE TO STARRY NIGHT:
BALLOON FOOEY, 1980
8" x 10", Black & White Photograph by Alan Kikuchi