It's ALIVE! The LED Art Lighting Project is a success.

Hey readers, good news. The Mr. Chippy LED art lighting project is complete, and it has exceeded all expectations! Well... except one. The plywood backing worked like a dream. The lighting was a resounding success, but there was one little thing I did not consider at the beginning of this whole exercise. One thing I probably should have noticed when I did the mock-up, but I guess I was a little too excited by the prospect of realizing my dream to see it at the time.

Let me back up just a bit for those of you who haven't been following along and have no idea who or what Mr. Chippy is. Let me do a quick recap. Chippy is the crash test dummy of art projects. It was a piece of art I created to test most of my art experiments. Things like adding colored pencil to my paintings, applying different finishes, gloss vs matt, etc. The whole reason Chippy was selected for this task is that he is a much smaller version of the big art you've seen up until now. The bigger pieces take forever to create, and so rather than finding out something doesn't work and ruining hours and hours of grueling labor, this is where Chippy steps in. Since he is a smaller version of the same techniques I've applied to the larger pieces, he is the perfect test piece, so if things go wrong or don't work out I, will not have ruined a major work of art. 

That being said, Chippy has now become one of my favorites, not just because I love the art but because of his fearlessness in the face of danger. He has courageously given himself to his role over and over again and comes out on top nearly every single time. If you remember my last post, I promised to retire him after this last test and guaranteed him a permanent spot on the studio wall. Even though there is a slight flaw in the lighting technique, I am honoring my word, and he now resides on the studio wall.

Materials assembled

Getting messy with glue

Plywood backing

Advanced scientific glue method

Assembly complete

Project complete and on the studio wall

I can see you patiently waiting for me to get back to the original point of this whole post, which is what I've learned about lighting my art. First and most importantly, it is possible, the dream is real, and Chippy is living proof that it can be done on a larger scale. Second, something I knew but did not consider when I started this journey. Plywood is imperfect and often has hollow spots. Meaning you can not see them on the surface, but if you've ever cut plywood, you'll know every once in a while you hit a hollow spot. There's not a lot you can do about it, that's just the nature of plywood. So why is that important, and how does that have anything to do with Chippy and the rest of my art? Let me explain.

Hold a piece of paper up to a light, and what do you see? The light shines through. Now, what is paper made of? If you said wood, then you probably understand where I'm headed with this. The plywood I use to create my art is quite thin. Not thin enough to allow light to bleed through, but thin enough that if there is a hollow spot between the laminate, it will. If you look closely at the photo of Chippy, you can see, near the top of the art is a thin line of light shining through.

This is not the end of the world, it's hardly noticeable if you notice at all, but what it does tell me is that I need to find a better solution for my larger images. Sure, I could gamble that those pieces do not contain hollow spots, but that would be a fool's errand. Instead, moving forward, I will try backing the next test image with a coat of black paint to see if it improves the appearance. So it's time to select another crash test dummy, and I know just the one. Stay tuned to find out who's next and whether or not I'll see the light. Yeah, sorry, probably should have warned you of dad jokes in advance. Well, that's it for this time. Stay tuned for the next exciting update when I tackle the big art using everything I learned here.