By Francesca Merwin, staff writer

There is a grand community of artists in Syracuse – some well-known, some at the creative fringe, and others whom we have yet to discover. One of our aims on the Connective Corridor is to seek out these folks and highlight their endeavors. For the next several months, we will follow Brendan Rose, Syracuse Public Artist in Residence (SPAR), and his triumphs (and sometimes trials) as an up-and-coming regional artist. Consider this an insider’s look into one local artist’s life.

Brendan Rose may be a little stuck. It’s February, which means he has just about three months before his next grand installation is supposed to be unveiled. The timeline is enough to make anyone nervous, especially since it seems like the beloved serpent took more like three seasons. No ground has been broken, and no masterpiece has been constructed. So what’s the hold up? The thing is, it wouldn’t be a true Brendan Rose piece if it wasn’t carefully thought out, piece by piece. And that’s where Rose is stuck. He’s in that dreaded place called the brainstorming stage.

Luckily, he’s got some pretty cool brainstorms going on. The catch is whether these incredibly diverse concepts can become one concrete (no pun intended) art installation. Let’s take a sneak peek into what he’s thinking and how he got there.

Picture yourself walking down a street during a rare, sunny day in Syracuse with your best friend, or your boyfriend or girlfriend. You’re staring at the ground, enjoying your stroll, and then a brightly colored circle sitting on the ground says:

It makes you smile and then laugh, and then it makes your day just a bit better. You think about it, but not too much. But it affected you in some unidentifiable way. This circle (and many others just like it) is just one piece in a project from Brendan Rose and Stasya Erickson, fellow public artist and Northside Collaboratory’s beautification coordinator. Rose and Erickson worked with SU students enrolled in Erickson’s one-credit course at SU, entitled “Dialogue and Action on Public Art,” to create circles of public action.  

Rose enjoyed the idea of the project so much that he wanted to see if he could incorporate concepts from it into his installation. He hopes to see if his work can make you smile or have an impact on your day.

But is Syracuse’s Public Artist in Residence influential enough to pull smiles out of thin air and put them into the public realm? “Can I determine that if you dance in this particular circle, you’ll be lucky?” Rose questions, referring to another circle from the project. “Can I play God like that?” One thing he does know, whether he has any control over it or not, is that believing in something makes it real.

“If you set up frameworks for people to personally believe in something and they connect with it, then they can carry it with them,” Rose muses. “As a public artist, I want to provide a place like that for people, and then put it in the public space.”

Once he’s landed on an idea for this place, he must present his idea to the Public Art Commission, receive approval and then actually build the thing or things – all by May 31. And let’s not ignore some of the other things he’s got going on. There’s the “Six Make One” show at Craft Chemistry with Brianna Kohlbrenner and Lock 49, happening now until February 11; the “Snow Show” at the Creekwalk with the Public Arts Task Force, which will take place on February 25 from 3-7pm; and, the light sculpture installation behind the MoST that he’s working on with Save the Rain, to be complete in 2013. Gulp.

But Rose is lucky, because he found an idea he can really connect to: finding love in Syracuse. And even if he has to go through the process of creating an installation, he wants to work on different sides of the project as well (you know, in his free time), whether it be collecting more love stories or commemorating the locations around the city where people have fallen in (or out of) love. “I’ve started to become invested in a bigger way,” Rose realizes. “It’s partly my own personal evolution as an artist. I’m probably going to continue and think about it beyond my role as Public Artist in Residence.”

For a man struggling with the responsibilities and time constraints of public artistry, it’s just another day in the life. The good thing is that if he ever gets bogged down by his numerous commitments, he can always dance in the middle of a circle, and maybe something incredible will happen. After all, you make your own luck!