Charging Durham

“Charging Durham”: an investigative artwork

Durham_Charging-21st-Cent_72_WEB

Digital Print / 3D Image, Frank Kreacic 2017

Charging Durham, Install 2017

Installation of the three panels next to Durham City Hall, North Carolina @ 2017

The Herald Sun interview; Durham, North Carolina @ 2017

 

This triptych piece, created by 3D artist Frank Kreacic, is a tribute to the spirit and future of the city of Durham, North Carolina. The design was inspired by the many facets of the city; it’s history, the citizenry and progress towards the future. Based on the Durham City Flag created by Al Nichols¹, the three areas of color (Red, Yellow and Blue) are placed similarly across the three panels. The overlying themes represented by the flag helped mold the final design and were incorporated.

483px-Flag_of_Durham,_North_Carolina.svg

Left panel: HISTORY

Durham would not even exist if it were not for the railroad. The early beginnings of the city are represented by an old city map and the wheel of a train². The white of the seven stars from the flag are echoed in the letters of “DURHAM”. Straddling the Left panel and center panel is the Yellow Band from the flag. Here, you’ll see a portion of: train engine, people’s silhouettes in the center and the “tail-end” of a large bull. The city streets of old Durham are from a map created in 1924. ³

Center panel: THE ENGINE

There is a continuation of the railroad theme, the engine. The most important part of the train. It makes the train move forward; slow at first, but “strong and steady” as it progresses ahead and on track. The “body” of the bull and its front limbs can be seen with more train mechanical parts. The Yellow Band and Blue Band from the flag are the foundation colors of this panel. The continuation of the silhouettes of people standing in line together, are central to the panel and the entire work. They are the engine and the most important part of Durham: the power and driving force behind all that is the “Bull City”.

Right panel: THE FUTURE

While we still see the mechanical parts of a train, the head of the bull is paramount. Surrounded by the city streets of Durham³ (again, a reference to those same streets in 1924 or earlier), the head and horns of the bull power forward. The Bull City / The City of Medicine is strong and charges into a destiny of its own making; just as the people have done for generations, starting with that railroad back in 1854.

coc1924

City of Durham: Public Art Collection: HERE

3D: How does it work?

“Charging Durham” is a digital sketch that should be viewed with 3D Chromadepth glasses (in person, on your phone or in one of my 3D “resin-ance” paintings).  They are not the “old style” Red / Cyan Anaglyph glasses that you may be familiar with.  Those 3D glasses you get at the movies…sorry, they won’t work either (Those have circular polarized lenses and merge images that way).  Chromadepth glasses have clear lenses and work as color separators.  American Paper Optics describes what the glasses actually do:

“The ChromaDepth glasses create striking 3D images from normal 2D images by pulling forward the color red to the foreground and sorting the remaining colors according to their position in the rainbow. ROY G BIV! (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet).”

I’ve designed this artwork (as I have with others) with multiple format viewing in mind: on any printed medium, on your cell phone, computer screen, large flat panel TV, projected image or in a full-layered resin painting. However you see my artwork, I hope it inspires and educates you at the same time!  ENJOY!

¹ Information from CRWFLAGS.com http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/us-nc-du.html

² Information from City of Durham https://durhamnc.gov/documentcenter/view/4097

³ information from Ancestry.com http://freepages.computers.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~orangecountync/durhammaps_maps/coc1924.jpg

Other Related Sites:

The Herald Sun VIDEO (of installation)

The Herald Sun: Article

American Paper Optics – Chromadepth 3D glasses description

Real3D Glasses description – Wikipedia

Durham County Library: Digital Collections

Digital Durham: a Duke University project

Rootsweb / Ancestory.com (Historic Durham County & City Maps, North Carolina)