Blog / 2026 / Painting in the Third Dimension

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Over the last twenty years as a painter, I’ve made mostly two-dimensional art, but now and again I’ve painted in the third dimension.

I did this door for a public art group show in DC in 2018, and this mask as a collaboration with the theater artist Tony Fuemmler in 2019. I added a tiny surreal detail to this hat at the request of my sweetie back in 2006.

Mainly though, when I’ve painted in 3D, it’s been on canvas bags like this one from 2007—it was my first! I remember distinctly trying to figure out how much to prime the canvas—basically how much to seal the fabric—before I started layering on the acrylics. I also remember trying to figure out how to paint every part of the bag, separating the handles so they wouldn’t end up glued together and thinking of what my arm would cover when I used the bag.

At the end of 2025, I took on a whole new 3D project—this! It’s one of the 52 sculptures of the #1 that are currently installed in Philadelphia as part of a yearlong citywide celebration of all the ways that the US’s historic first capital has been first in the nation. This artwork marks the first zoo in the United States, and this tortoise-tastic panel is the first part of my part of this public art group show that I finished.

In all, I painted three #1 sculptures, and I did so over the course of just five weeks in November and December. The quick turnaround meant that I needed to be strategic, planning out my every brushstroke ahead of time as much as possible.

Since I’d never painted a big sculpture of the #1 made of styrofoam and covered in a hard coating—since that’s not exactly a surface you encounter every day as an artist—I knew I needed to finish one of the sides of one of the sculptures right away, just to prove to myself that I could—a confidence boost for the grueling work schedule I knew I was taking on.

From the beginning of the design process, back in October, the tortoise panel was meant to be the first one I’d complete. It depicts animals, and painting animals is my comfort zone as an artist. Plus, these animals in particular are structurally simple. Unlike cheetahs, orangutans, or otters for example, tortoises have an immovable shell. Fewer moving parts means the animal cannot take on as wide a variety of shapes and poses, and that means I have less of a chance of messing up the shape or pose of the animal. Which is what made this portrait of a 97-year-old first-time mom the first panel of my #1 sculptures to be finished!

Every Saturday this year from 11 to 1, some historic first for Philadelphia is being celebrated with storytelling, activities, and a painted #1 like this one. If you want to celebrate the zoo with me, Saturday August 8^th is the day to come out!