pattern & design

i, too, went to kppc. i have to tell you, i'm always really freaked out when i go. i'm constantly looking over my shoulder while i walk around. even on the state park side! the legal side! i can't seem to relax. so i was a little worried about going to take pictures there. i need to be relaxed to take pictures i like. so i went to the doctors' homes. i figured i'd find some relaxation there? i know everyone loves the looming main building. you know, the one with all the barbed wire around it. and, that makes sense. thats where it all went down. but i prefer the doctors houses.

there is something about them - bunched up together, away from the madness of the patients, and really close to the water that intrigues me. maybe it's this idea of "peace and quiet," some semblance of normalcy for these doctors and their families when they came home from work. the homes are modest with bushes out front and a few even have a balcony and patio on the top floor to look out over the sprawling landscape. most of the buildings at the psych center are over grown, decaying, collapsing, growing weeds...but not the doctors homes. even in abandonment they seem to be living better than the rest. so imagine my astonishment when i came across the one home that was starting to look a bit scraggly. the front door looked as if it had been tampered with and the sides of the building were covered with weeds inching towards the roof. paint was cracking and peeling. even the doorbell looked out of whack. i became fascinated with the designs in the cracked paint and the mis-matched textures. like a detailed quilt, the house began to look patterned. maybe it's the arts and crafts on my mind but i saw texture, layers, exposed brick, and weeds as a woven fabric surrounding this structure. i was so fascinated with this house i think i spent thirty minutes just walking around it. i even tried to get in! me! scareddy cat me. i tried to bust open the already loose door. but, no luck. i think i'm going to try to get back there and get in.

after my walk around that house, i looked across the street and saw these three buildings. i'm not sure what they were for. they were connected by this one way street that looped around them all. most of the psych center is boarded up so, thats nothing new. this one building had a clear path to walk up into its atrium so i took the invitation. the doors and windows of the entire building were boarded up. but these boards seemed to be a pretty bright red in comparison to the others. i began to see mark rothko. do you guys know him? he was an abstract expressionist artist in the early 50's that did these large scale paintings of (this is very reductive of me but i want to put it in the easiest of terms) blocks of color. a lot of people didn't take him seriously because they didn't understand why canvas' of straight color were art. if i remember correctly, some of his paintings connected a color with a feeling and that was part of what he was trying to depict - a feeling. i certainly got a feeling from these boards of color. it was a sense of anxiety. i no longer felt the calm i did in front of the doctors homes. this was completely different. like someone was about to sneak up on me, or jump out from behind one of the boards. i could even hear some birds echoing inside. it made me freak. but i forced myself to stand there and get the patterns on film. or digital film, rather. and then i booked it out of there.

it wasn't until later that i thought about the rothko chapel. it was commissioned by dominique and john de menil for a site in houston, texas. the chapel is dedicated to martin luther king jr.. it's not only a place for religion but it also houses some of rothko's work and beautiful modern architecture designed by philip johnson and executed by howard barnstone and eugene aubry. religion, art, and architecture. interesting combination. it's non-denominational and a place for anyone who wants to admire the art work, architecture, or just sit and talk. it is a site for interfaith marriage, speakers from all over the world (i think nelson mandela even spoke there?), community meetings, etc. etc. etc. it is a site that welcomes everyone. the now abandoned psych center is just this way. i think its over 100 acres of land. in the winter, i've seen people snow shoe across the campus. i've seen picnics near the water. there's shelter from the elements under the awnings of the buildings. one building even has the boards on its windows painted by the local elementary school. this too is like rothko's work in the chapel. hia paintings are very much a part of the architecture. the two intermingle to a point where, at times, you loose a sense of what is architecture and what is art. check it out: (http://www.rothkochapel.org/virtual-interior.htm)

the chapel is meant to bring people together, demonstrated by its small enclosed space, and i think the psych center can have this same feeling. yes, it's a wide open space. you can be on one side of the campus and not even see another person. but, there have been times when i've been by the doctors houses staring off into the distance and have seen a teeny tiny outline of a person. while they are so physically far away, we are in this sprawling space (oxymoron?) together. you can feel completely alone, if you want to, or part of a community, if you want to. i like the idea that this once "sick" institutional, structural, rational place is now open to the public as an openly shared space. an environment of community or independence. whichever you prefer.

will i be damned by future art historians for comparing elements of rothko's chapel to a psych center? possibly. and, at the same time, i think this is an idea to explore much much further.