The Blue Man Group had their first formal art competition. From the innumerable submissions, my piece, Blue Consciousness, was one of the six selected works. The other winners were:

Kathy Czopek, Blue Frenzy, from St. Louis, Missouri; Kuzana Ogg, Khshathra, from Bakersfield, California; Dan Olvera, FREN Z, from Chicago; Cody Rounds, Pulse, from Mahwah, New Jersey; Candace Wark and Shirley Nannini, Tangled All in Blue 5, from Chicago.

The unveiling was part of Chicago’s EXPO ART WEEK. After refreshments, the Blue Man Group performed a special 15 minute show, and then unveiled the art works. These are all 10 x 10 feet in size, installed outside on the building’s southern wall. The plan is to have the pieces displayed for 3 years.

Blue Man Group 2013 Art Competition and Exhibit, Briar Street Theater, 3133 N. Halsted, Chicago, Illinois, September 20, 2013 – indefinite

Here is my verbal description of the piece:

The joyful essence of the Blue Man Group comes from unbridled creativity, imagination, teamed up with humor. This creativity arises from the interactions of our neurons–the interplay of their immensely tangled processes, coupled with stored associations, memories. In Blue Consciousness there are multiple layers of my own neurons, brain scans, and brain wave tracings overlying a transformed photograph I took of a polar bear on Beechy Island, in the Canadian high arctic. The images in these layers span many decades of experience. The polar bear is surrounded by blue ice, blue skies, blue consciousness.