Bernard Trainor is a landscape architect and fine art painter based in the Carmel Valley. Grounded was an exhibition at New Museum Los Gatos drawing connections between Trainor's landscape architecture and its influence on his work as a painter. My design process included a trip to the artist's home studio in Carmel with the curator and the museum's exhibiton manager to select the paintings and sketches to show in the exhibition. I was particularly drawn to the organic loose shapes from the artist's sketchbook so I took a few sketches and translated them into cut vinyl to use behind text elements within the exhibit design as a subtle pattern to give the viewer a sense of being intimately close to the artist's working process. A part of the exhibit included my design of the interactive element where I connected smart lights to some of the light fixtures on a painting to allow visitors to adjust the light level and color temperature on the artwork. An important element to Trainor's work as he routinely paints outside in his garden with varying light throughout the day.
