Alden’s New Age Bordello Lamps, now at the DaVinci Art Alliance, 704 Catharine Street, Philadelphia PA

“Think of decorative lighting as architectural jewelry. It can dress up or dress down the look.” – Randall Whitehead, San Francisco lighting designer & writer

Birdland • 32″ evening lamp composed of a miscellany of found and painted parts • collection of Rick and Marna Mitchell

In April I submitted one of my more elaborate luminary confections, Birdland, as one of my two entries in the DaVinci Art Alliance’s Spring show, celebrating the
85th anniversary of the alliance, and the 564th birthday of Leonardo daVinci on April 15. Serendipitously the lamp immediately sold to a new patron, who bought it sight unseen, based solely on the photos above received in an email. As a result of that sale, a fellow board member at the
Alliance suggested that I install two hanging lamps (seen in detail at left) in the front windows of the gallery, a way of drawing attention to the gallery, as well as providing a venue for selling more of my work. Thus two swag lamps that had been hanging in my own front
windows at 717 Federal Street were transferred to the front windows of the gallery about two weeks ago. Left: Forever Amber. Right: For Whom the Bell Tolls. Both lamps, $300 each. So enthusiastic was the response to the swag
lamps that it was suggested that I add two table lamps to the front windows as well. Thus it was that two more luminaries were installed earlier this week. All lamps feature remote-controlled color-changing LED light-bulbs which provide a wide range of possible single colors, plus two options for gradually displaying the full spectrum of color, at a quick
12-second repeat, and a slower 50-second repeat.
Above and at left Red Wedding luminary composed of various found parts, including an old slide tray, created in 2015 • 20″h x 11″d • $250 • seen in Off/On modes above, as well
as an additional series showing the lamp in its RGB modes above left.

Venus Observed luminary – 21″h x 11″d – $270
Shone in its Off/On (white LED light) modes as well as a series showing its RGB modes below.

In addition to the four lamps in the first-floor
gallery’s front windows, two more small table lamps have been installed in the basement niches behind elaborate antique cast-iron gratings that protect the windows, as seen in the photo of the building’s facade below.