Crash Test Palette, 2025
Fused glass, aluminum, steel, wood, watercolor pigments
18 x 27 x 5 inches

My first palette was a folding French easel board that I modified for working with watercolor. It was made of white laminate glued to masonite and was a perfectly portable system for mixing dollops of tubed color directly on the board. Two brass hinges held the rectangular surfaces just far enough away from one another when it was folded in half, which kept the paints from sticking together. It was sufficient until the glue started to break down and caused the laminate to separate. It was impressive, even in its warped and delaminated state where all the crusty colors ran together in sinful globs of the best muddy mess. I left it with a friend who was interested in painting, as I switched over to a terrible piece of junk plexiglass leftover from a failed framing project. The snapped sharp edges were always getting caught on my shirt and kept it from neatly fitting into any kind of box. I painted with it for years and swore to one day make a new palette. The result is this glorious new folding system with two white, glass mixing boards fused together with a border of color coordinated pigment wells. Luxury at last! The only problem is it weighs a ton, and I’m not quite satisfied with the glass color for the cadmium yellow wells. Although, my favorite part is the shattered crash test symbol, which ironically fell off the table while cutting the glass and conveniently broke into salvageable pieces. The first painting I made with the palette was Compound Duality, Observation Centered, where the black and yellow cross shaped motif is present in the lower left side of the left panel. The base piece is made of white oak and stainless steel, which presents the tool as an aesthetically pleasing sculptural object.