Christopher Derek Bruno and his 10K SF Color Intervention in Seattle

‘Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.’

~Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.


That’s the quote Seattle’s Christopher Derek Bruno says he kept revisiting during the painting of this new project that fairly washes the hate right out of your heart. We can’t help but be reminded of huge expanses covered in colorful washes by Risk and Shepard Fairey a few years ago in Miami or the massive swimming pool Hot Tea did in New York in 2015.

Christopher Derek Bruno in Seattle for SoDo Track Project. August 2017. (photo © Christopher Derek Bruno)

A private commission for the SoDo Track program, businesses interests invest in public artworks to attract people to this section of the city along a section of light rail and “to address chronic graffiti and beautify the district,” according to the SoDo Business Improvement Area website.

The former industrial sector of mills and manufacturing later turned to warehouses like this before the shipping container industry came along and now the area boasts big box home improvement businesses and a mélange of cross-industry interests – and artists of course.

Christopher Derek Bruno in Seattle for SoDo Track Project. August 2017. (photo © Christopher Derek Bruno)

You may be interested to sit atop one of these rooftops to watch Monday’s solar eclipse, which Seattle is supposed to catch 92% of and while there you may consider that color theory and science also entered into Bruno’s calculation of this piece of public art.

He calls it ‘Exterior Intervention 1 : angle of incidence’ and says that it “is a site specific composition based on the use of light as a means to detect and decipher motion (Red shift / Blue Shift). This common measure for the direction of a galaxy/star/object/particle as it moves through space and time realized in the form of 21 values from blue to yellow, and finally red across the longest side of the site.”

If the science isn’t what impresses you most, consider the quantities: 10,000 square feet of surface, nearly 100 gallons of paint, and 10 days painting on a roof. It will be interesting to see the colors moving here for some time to come.

Christopher Derek Bruno in Seattle for SoDo Track Project. August 2017. (photo © Christopher Derek Bruno)

Christopher Derek Bruno in Seattle for SoDo Track Project. August 2017. (photo © Christopher Derek Bruno)

Christopher Derek Bruno in Seattle for SoDo Track Project. August 2017. (photo © Christopher Derek Bruno)

Christopher Derek Bruno in Seattle for SoDo Track Project. August 2017. (photo © Christopher Derek Bruno)

Christopher Derek Bruno in Seattle for SoDo Track Project. August 2017. (photo © Christopher Derek Bruno)

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