Keyed Up Kenosha
July 2018- Kenosha, WI
Kenosha sits right on the edge of Lake Michigan. And anyone who has stood at that shoreline and stared out at the water knows the feeling. It goes further than you can see. It's deeper than it looks. And on the right kind of overcast day, your imagination starts to fill in the gaps.
That's exactly where this concept came from.
The City of Kenosha put together a public art project that placed painted pianos throughout the city for the community to interact with, play, gather around, and enjoy. I was selected to paint one and I wasn't about to do something safe with it.
The concept: tentacles. Wrapped around the piano like something massive had risen from the depths of Lake Michigan and decided this particular instrument was worth holding onto. A sea monster with taste, apparently.
The goal was imagination first. That specific feeling you get as a kid when a story pulls you somewhere that doesn't exist but feels completely real for a moment. I wanted someone to walk up to that piano, see the tentacles curling around the legs and keys, and immediately start writing the story in their head. What is it? How big is it? Is it friendly?
At the unveiling event, people did exactly that. They came up, they laughed, they pointed, they sat down and actually played. There is something special about watching strangers interact with a piece of public art in real time. Music coming out of a piano wrapped in sea monster tentacles on a sidewalk in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Kenosha News - "Keyed Up Kenosha" Piano Artist Fernando Alvarez
