Chicago-based artist Jeffrey Michael Austin used to love photographing puddles all around the world. He was interested in the mirror-like quality of the reflections when the sun hits them. Soon, that interest in observing puddles developed into an interest in making puddle sculptures full of weird galactic liquid. Puddles eventually dry up but Austin’s don’t. Apparently, the artist has achieved success, right?
“The Puddles came from my desire to make work that at first glance feels mundane and unassuming, a candid situation you wouldn’t immediately regard as or associate with an art experience,”
Austin says.
“I’d hoped that in this way they would gently present themselves as yet another detail of your natural environment, before then unfurling with a kind of subtle and surprising magic – an extraordinary quality that you have to grapple with for a moment before facing it with any criticality.”
