SUNSET TRACE
by Patrick Shearn of Poetic Kinetics
Laguna Art Museum presents Sunset Trace, an outdoor art installation on display from November 5 through November 15, 2020.
In collaboration with the City of Laguna Beach, the museum has commissioned the site-specific work of art for Art & Nature. The multicolored kinetic sculpture will be installed off Main Beach over Main Beach Park. Entitled Sunset Trace, it will seamlessly weave through the palm trees along the shoreline, traversing sections of the walkways and cliffs between the gazebo and Main Beach in a stunning, windburn display. Sunset Trace is an outdoor art installation on view from November 5 through November 15, 2020.
Inspired by the graceful murmuration of birds flocking together, or schools of fish coalescing and moving simultaneously, Patrick Shearn’s signature Skynet Series is a constant reminder of nature moving around us. Suspended using transparent monofilament netting and rigged inconspicuously, the undulating forms appear to levitate in midair. Finessed by the unique wind patterns of each site, these outdoor art pieces reveal unseen natural wind elements in unusual, dramatic ways.
Art & Nature serves a number of purposes: to provide a festival of art and ideas for the community; to inspire artists; to find and develop connections between art and science; to raise awareness of environmental issues; and to celebrate Laguna Beach as a center for the appreciation of art and nature. The museum’s executive director, Malcolm Warner, explains why Laguna Art Museum is the ideal organization to conceive, develop, and present the popular program:
“The theme of Art & Nature speaks particularly to the identity of Laguna Beach, which for over a hundred years has been a center for art, the appreciation of nature, and environmental awareness. In 1929, when the Laguna Beach Art Association built an art gallery to show and sell their work, they chose a commanding location on the coastline close to the natural wonders they loved to paint. The present museum occupies the same site. There could be no more appropriate venue in which to explore the art-nature connection.”