My commission for this new Hyatt Place is a trio of virtual vanity plates on the theme of travel. We chose to make three triple-plate images. I dug into English literature and recycled various found-objects of interest, phrases that many might know. The first plate, NOTALL • HUWNDR • ARLOST, derives from J. R. R. Tolkien’s “Fellowship of the Ring.” The second, ALL • THE WORLDS • ASTAGE, comes from Shakespeare’s “As You Like It.” The third, TOOKTH • RDLESS • TRVLED, is built from parts of Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken.”
This hotel is located adjacent to a light-rail station close to Denver’s airport. It was designed to be warm and engaging with multiple comfortable spaces with tables and chairs for guests, expanding openly from the check-in desk. The curated Colorado-centric art program is central to enhancing that feeling of comfort and engagement by the variety, liveliness and wit of its well-chosen commissions.
These are digital paintings. Starting with actual license plates from my large personal collection, I photograph them and put them through an extensive regime of processing to arrange color, build the words, construct the relief, shadows, and lighting. On the more aged plates, I also do extensive hand work to simulate the scratches and abrasions found on the embossed type of the original plate.
