"New Morning" Kite by Michael Thompson

Based in Chicago, IL, contemporary artist Michael Thompson creates unique kites, collages and mixed media works assembled from material fragments of past and present collected in his travels. His ongoing series of large-scale kites bridge the gap between flat art and sculpture, each crafted of split bamboo frames covered with stretched muslin and a collage of vintage ephemera – including kimonos, obis, paintings, scrolls, drawings, metal leaf, bleeding paper, book pages, or anything with a story to tell.

In “New Morning,” panels of teal and indigo leach across the expansive canvas with captivating irregularity. Contrasted by a neutral field of vintage block prints and gestural calligraphy, the cool watercolors ebb and flow across the saturated canvas like puddles of water, evoking the serenity of a lapping shore or the watery skies of daybreak, still damp with morning dew. The mottled blue color spreads across the kite, obscuring and revealing the orderly patterns of text underneath to dynamic visual effect.

"New Morning," 2024
Michael Thompson
Split bamboo, canvas, found paper, pigments.