GRONK is widely known for a thought provoking body of expressionistic work, which includes painting, performance, photography, video and installations. He has shown at the Los Angeles County Museum, The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston and the National Hispanic Cultural Center, to name a few. He has done set design for the Los Angeles Opera. GRONK is probably best known for his large scale, on-site mural pieces that he paints in front of an audience. The process of painting the mural therefore becomes a performance where the audience gets to watch the process involved in its creation.

GRONK first came to UNM for a residency as part of the Cultural Practice/Virtual Styles project funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. For a detailed description of GRONK's residency, please see GRONK's residency page or ATC's Fall 2002 Newsletter.

During his visit, he collaborated with UNM staff to create a small animation for the fifty-five foot hemispheric dome at LodeStar. When he returned this past January for the Chicano Visions show, he and the Digital Pueblo Project's lead animator, Hue Walker, worked out the design for a second animation to be done by Digital Pueblo Project participants.

    Preliminary animation of "Neo" Character in primitive      
landscape.                                                              

Storyboard drawing by GRONK for a dome animation at the Lodestar Astronomy Center. "Neo"
character in primitive landscape with glass brain overhead.

Project Goal - Produce GRONK's "Brain Flame" animation for the digital dome at the Lodestar Astronomy Center. Students will work from GRONK's drawings, textures, and storyboards in Maya and After Effects. The class meets concurrently at the National Hispanic Cultural Center and LodeStar Astronomy Center T-Pods. Each class is lead by an animation mentor, with the primary instructor moving between the two locations. The classes meet regularly over the Access Grid to talk about and compare their work on the project.

This classes meets Wednesdays from 9am to 2pm from June 4th through July 16th, 2003.

Drawing of flame by GRONK.
GRONK class students on the Access Grid at the National Hispanic Cultural Center,
June 2003 -- Photo by David Sanchez

Preliminary primitive landscape for "Brain Flame" illustrated in Maya™.
Sample dome master of primitive landscape from GRONK's "Brain Flame." Left: View of dome master as it is layed out inside a domed screen. Right: Same dome master file before it is sliced and projected onto a domed screen.
 
Dome master of the interior of the glass brain that the "Neo" character is sucked up into.
Objects from the primitive landscape float around the brain's interior, bursting into flames
when they hit its walls.